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LIBRARY    I 

UNIVERSITY  OP   I 
VSCAUFORNU/ 


THE  TREND 
OF  THE  RACES 


GEORGE  EDMUND  HAYNES,  Ph.D. (Columbia) 

Secretary  of  the  Commission  on  the  Church  and 

Race  Relations  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches 

of  Christ  in  America.       Recently  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Negro 

Economics,  Department  of  Labor.     Sometime  Professor  of 

Sociology  and  Economics  at  Fisk  University. 

Author  of:   The  Negro  at  Work 

in  New  York  City^   and  Negro  Newcomers 

in  Detroit,    Michigan. 


With  an  Introduction 
BY  JAMES  H.  DILLARD 


Published  jointly  by 
COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN  FOR  HOME  MISSIONS 

and 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 

New  York 


LOAN  STACK 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY 
COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN  FOR  HOME  MISSIONS 

AND 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES  OF  AMERICA 


TO  MY  WIFE  AND  SON 

COMPANION  AND  FOLLOWER 

IN  THE  PATHS  OF  PEACE 


030 


A  FOREWORD 

Again  a  new  home  mission  study  book  is  added  to  the 
lengthening  series  of  such  books  issued  by  the  Council 
of  Women  for  Home  Missions  and  the  Missionary  Edu 
cation  Movement.  Their  purpose  primarily  is  to  lead 
Christian  people  to  the  active  practise  of  that  cardinal 
principle  of  Christ,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 

Obviously,  if  our  neighbor  is  to  be  loved,  he  must  be 
known.  We  must  realize  something  of  his  racial  mind 
and  spirit,  his  handicaps,  his  achievements,  his  capacities, 
his  horizon,  his  goals.  Our  seeking  to  know  him  must 
be  on  the  basis  of  the  broadest  sympathy.  In  the  friend 
liest  and  most  helpful  spirit  we  should  sincerely  desire 
to  understand  him  in  the  place  where  he  is  and  to  appre 
hend  something  of  the  road  by  which  he  came  and  the 
direction  of  his  highest  and  best  aspirations,  that  we 
may,  so  far  as  we  can,  make  it  possible  for  him  to  attain 
his  best  in  our  common  civilization.  We  should  at  the 
same  time  quite  as  earnestly  seek  to  know  ourselves  in 
respect  to  our  limitations,  achievements,  and  goals  in  the 
building  of  the  social  order. 

It  is  a  valued  privilege  to  have  as  the  author  of  Tlie 
Trend  of  the  Races  a  gifted  and  honored  representative 
of  the  Negro  people.  The  following  summary  of  his 
career  appears  in  Who's  Who  in  America: 

"George  Edmund  Haynes,  sociologist ;  born  Pine  Bluff, 
Ark.,  May  n,  1880;  A.B.,  Fisk  University,  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  1903;  A.M.,  Yale,  1904;  student  University  of 
Chicago,  summers  1906,  1907;  graduate  New  York 
School  of  Philanthropy,  1910;  European  travel,  1910; 
Ph.D.,  Columbia  University,  1912;  Secretary  Colored 


vi  A  FOREWORD 

Men's  Department  International  Committee  Y.M.C.A., 
1905-1908;  professor  of  sociology  and  economics,  Fisk 
University,  1910-1920  (on  leave,  1918-1920)  ;  Director 
of  Division  of  Negro  Economics,  U.  S.  Department  of 
Labor,  May,  1918,  to  May,  1921.  One  of  the  founders 
and  formerly  Executive  Director,  National  League  on 
Urban  Conditions  among  Negroes.  Member  American 
Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science ;  American  Eco 
nomic  Association." 

Dr.  Haynes  brings  to  his  task,  not  only  the  results  of 
thorough  study,  but  also  the  experience  gained  by  resi 
dence  and  investigation  in  communities  of  many  different 
types.  Between  1912  and  1920  he  traveled  in  the  rural 
districts  of  every  Southern  state  and  has  visited  all  the 
cities,  North  and  South,  in  which  there  is  any  consid 
erable  Negro  population. 

It  is  the  earnest  hope  of  the  publishing  committee  that 
the  book  will  create  in  all  who  use  it  a  greater  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness  in  the  relationships  be 
tween  the  races. 

EDITH  H.  ALLEN,  Chairman, 
Joint   Committee   on   Home  Mission 
Literature  representing   The   Council 
of  Women  for  Home  Missions  and 
The  Missionary  Education  Movement. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  FOREWORD  .  .  .  .  i  .  .  .  v 
AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  .  ,*.;,..  .  xi 
INTRODUCTION  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  xiii 

CHAPTER  I.    WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE       ...         1 
Typical  pioneers  in  race  relations.    Two  methods  of 
race  adjustment     Conditions  surrounding  America's 
choice.    White  and  Negro  public  opinion.    The  task 
in  racial  relations. 

CHAPTER  II.  SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  .  .  23 
Progress  in  economic  relations.  Development  in  in 
dustrial  relations.  The  progress  of  Negro  farmers. 
Growth  of  business  enterprises.  Progress  in  health. 
Progress  in  mora1s.  Development  of  homes.  Ad 
vance  in  community  life.  Progress  in  education. 
Advance  in  inventions  and  scientific  discovery. 
Strength  in  Negro  leadership.  Progress  in  religious 
life.  Need  for  increased  opportunities. 

CHAPTER  III.    THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD      63 

Types  of  mental  and  spiritual  capacity.  Evidence  of 
mental  capacity.  Feelings  influence  attitudes  and 
conduct.  Humor  and  dramatic  ability.  Capacity  for 
music ;  for  poetry ;  for  art.  Religious  genius  of  the 
Negro.  Personal  re'-ations  valued  above  property 
possession.  Self-forgetful  loyalty  of  the  Negro. 
Tolerance  and  optimism  under  oppression.  Rising 
tide  of  race  consciousness.  Increasing  resentment 
and  suspicion.  The  Negro  as  a  contributor  to 
American  social  consciousness.  Survival  of  super 
stition  and  backwardness.  The  development  of  ra 
cial  self-respect.  What  the  Negro  wants.  Growing 
dependence  of  Negroes  upon  their  own  leaders.  The 
Negro  and  the  interracial  mind. 
vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

FACE 

CHAPTER  IV.    THE   NEGRO'S    OFFERING   TO   THE 

STARS  AND  STRIPES      ...       99 

In  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  In  the  conflict  of 
1812.  In  the  Civil  War.  In  the  Spanish-American 
War.  Negro  citizenship.  Friction  due  to  exercise 
of  the  franchise.  In  the  World  War.  Non-com 
batant  service.  In  agriculture  and  industry  during 
the  War.  Negro  economics  during  the  War.  Negro 
women  and  the  World  War.  In  Liberty  Loan  and 
food  campaigns.  The  Negro  in  the  Army.  Negro 
troops  in  action. 

CHAPTER  V.  THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  136 
Attitudes  and  ways  of  action  due  to  conscience. 
Influence  of  economic  motives.  Survivals  from  the 
past.  Attitudes  due  to  ideas  of  race.  Effects  of 
principles  and  ideals  of  democracy.  The  white  race 
and  the  interracial  mind. 

CHAPTER  VI.    A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE    .     158 

Racial  contacts  lead  to  racial  good-will.  Church  co 
operation  leads  to  better  understanding.  Efficient 
cooperation  in  division  of  labor.  Cooperative  or 
ganization  may  be  general.  Mutual  economic  and 
life  interests.  Group  interdependence  between  men 
tal  and  social  factors.  Influence  of  race  relations  on 
white  and  Negro  homes.  The  Church  an  avenue  o£ 
racial  cooperation.  The  Negro  Church  forced 
through  discrimination.  Satisfactory  racial  contacts 
through  churches.  Educational  institutions  may  pro 
mote  cooperation.  Cooperative  contacts  through 
government.  Voluntary  organizations  may  coordi 
nate  interracial  activities.  Popular  education 
needed.  Mutual  inheritance  of  ideals. 

APPENDIX       .       .       .       .       /  .       .       .     195 

BIBLIOGRAPHY       -.1  .     201 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Southern  university  .....      Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

Farm  instruction 32 

Negro  women  in  industry 64 

Negro  regiment  returning  from  France  .        .        .  112 

Negro  shacks  and  new  homes 144 

A  Negro  city  church   .        .        .        .       >•       .       .  160 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

Two  score  and  nineteeen  years  have  passed  since  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  set  America  free.  Since  that 
time  modern  science  and  invention  and  world  movements 
have  brought  the  questions  of  race  relations  and  democ 
racy  to  the  forefront  of  public  policy,  both  national  and 
international. 

The  records  of  the  past  have  left  mainly  the  experience 
of  conflict  and  conquest  in  the  dealings  of  the  strong  with 
the  weak  and  the  white  with  the  black.  Consequently,  the 
world  faces  the  new  situations  and  the  rising  tide  of  race 
consciousness  with  quite  as  limited  knowledge  of  whether 
the  principles  of  racial  appreciation  and  cooperation  can  be 
made  practicable  and  how  they  may  be  achieved. 

Experience  in  the  adjustment  of  the  relations  of  the 
white  and  Negro  peoples  in  America,  therefore,  has  great 
significance  for  the  world-wide  trend  of  the  races.  The 
very  issue  of  whether  or  not  there  will  soon  be  a  warless 
world  is  involved  because  the  problem  of  the  twentieth 
century  is  the  problem  of  the  contacts  of  the  white  and 
colored  races.  With  such  interests  involved,  no  student  of 
American  race  relations  can  well  dogmatize  or  scold. 
What  is  needed  is  more  light  and  less  heat.  Truth  has 
only  to  be  revealed  to  carry  convictions ;  it  cannot  be 
permanently  concealed.  The  light  of  knowledge  and  the 
conviction  of  truth  beget  action  in  the  spirit  of  the  Ser 
mon  on  the  Mount. 

There  is  now  available  a  growing  body  of  scientific  and 
religious  ideas  and  principles  to  guide  the  feeling,  thinking, 
attitudes,  and  actions  on  such  social  questions.  The  au 
thor  has  here  attempted  an  introduction  to  the  discussion 
of  the  relations  of  the  two  races  in  America  in  the  light 

xi 


xii  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

of  some  of  these  ideas  and  principles.  He  trusts  that  the 
reader  will  consider  these  pages  with  an  open  mind.  Such 
bias  as  probably  a  writer  cannot  divest  himself  of  in  mat 
ters  so  vital  is  clear  enough  to  be  taken  into  account  by 
the  impartial  judge.  There  are,  doubtless,  errors  that  will 
be  apparent  to  the  practised  eye.  There  are  repetitions 
of  some  points  which  recur  in  more  than  one  phase  of  dis 
cussion. 

Sources  of  evidence  used  have  been  noted  in  footnotes 
wherever  possible;  much  of  that  which  has  come  from 
leaflets,  letters,  clippings,  and  other  sources  cannot  be  ac 
knowledged  except  in  this  general  way.  Special  apprecia 
tion  is  hereby  expressed  to  many  friends  and  to  my  wife 
who  have  been  generous  in  helpful  criticism  and  encour 
agement  and  through  whom  past  personal  experience  has 
made  the  book  possible.  Gratitude  is  offered  to  the  Joint 
Committee  on  Home  Mission  Literature  representing  the 
Missionary  Education  Movement  and  the  Council  of 
Women  for  Home  Missions  and  the  office  staff  of  these 
organizations  for  useful  suggestions  and  unfailing  cour 
tesy. 

The  risks  of  criticism  of  this  venture  into  popular 
presentation  of  such  a  delicate  and  difficult  question  have 
been  taken  in  the  hope  of  adding  a  useful  line  of  thought 
that  may  be  of  value  in  dealing  with  the  problems  of  the 
color  line. 

GEORGE  EDMUND  HAYNES 

Washington,  D.  C. 
April,  1922. 


INTRODUCTION 

By  James  H.  Dillard 

The  publishers  have  asked  me  to  write  a  brief  intro 
duction  to  this  book  by  Dr.  George  E.  Haynes.  Many 
books  are  being  issued,  both  in  America  and  elsewhere, 
on  various  phases  of  race  questions,  but  there  is  a  place 
for  this  new  volume.  First  let  me  say  that  I  think  Dr. 
Haynes  is  correct  in  expressing  the  opinion  that  the 
stirrings  of  race  feelings  and  race  issues  throughout  the 
world  will  affect  race  relations  in  our  own  country. 
There  are  plenty  of  people  in  the  South  who  think  of 
the  problem  as  existing  nowhere  else.  This  shows  igno 
rance  of  the  facts,  and  yet  those  who  think  so  are  right 
to  a  certain  extent;  for  not  even  in  the  Northern  states 
is  the  problem  quite  the  same  as  it  is  in  the  South,  and 
especially  in  the  rural  South,  where  the  masses  of  the 
colored  population  still  live,  and  will  probably  continue 
to  live.  But  even  in  the  backgrounds  of  the  South  it 
will  more  and  more  be  realized  that  a  race  question  exists 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  effect  of  this  knowledge 
will  be  wholesome.  For  one  of  the  needs  of  readjust 
ment  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact,  obvious  of  course 
but  too  much  disregarded,  that  the  Negro  is  a  member 
of  one  of  the  great  world  races.  What  the  author  says 
about  this  and  about  the  history  of  the  race  is  well  worth 
reading. 

Dr.  Haynes  calls  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  ihere 
are  two  ways  of  settling  race  conflicts,  wherever  the 
conflicts  may  be.  One  way  is  the  way  of  force  and 
violence.  This  has  been  the  common  way.  The  other 
way  is  the  way  of  conciliation,  understanding,  and  good 
will.  As  to  the  present  situation  in  our  own  country  he 

xiii 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

asks,  "Shall  mutual  misunderstanding,  suspicions,  and 
friction  continue,  growing  more  and  more  acute?  Or 
shall  mutual  understanding,  tolerance  and  good-will  re 
place  them?"  This  presents  the  issue  perhaps  rather  too 
strongly,  for  there  is  already  more  understanding,  more 
tolerance  and  good-will  than  the  question  would  imply, 
and  yet  his  question  is  the  question.  In  a  later  part 
of  the  book  he  gives  the  desired  answer  in  a  quotation  < 
from  the  Univer  sityJRace  Commission  wmchjsjivsj^No 
fact  is  more  clearly  established  by  history  than  that 
hatred  and  force  only  complicate  race  relations.  The 
alternative  to  this  is  counsel  and  cooperation  among 
men  of  character  and  good-will,  and,  above  all,  of  intel 
ligent  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  racial  prob- 


In  1913  in  Atlanta  a  section  of  the  Southern  Sociologi 
cal  Congress  held  a  meeting  which  was  the  first  of  its 
kind.  White  men  and  black  men  met  together  on  the 
same  floor  and  spoke  to  one  another  with  frankness  and 
without  ill-temper.  From  that  time  down  to  the  present, 
with  the  many  local  groups  organized  by  the  fine  efforts 
of  the  Commission  on  Interracial  Cooperation,  there 
have  been  meetings  of  representatives  of  the  two  races 
at  which  more  and  more  the  spirit  of  understanding  and 
cooperation  has  prevailed.  When  I  think  of  this,  and 
when  I  think  of  the  increasing  influences  of  school  and 
church,  in  spite  of  lynchings  and  other  evils  of  which 
we  hear,  I  confess  myself  to  have  the  hopeful  note.  I 
see  too  many  good  people  who  believe  in  what  is  right 
and  who  want  to  see  righteousness  practised,  not  to 
have  the  hope  that  the  right  alternative  of  the  two  ways 
will  prevail.  And  shall  we  not  have  faith  in  educa 
tion  and  religion,  both  of  which  great  forces  are  doing 
their  inevitable  work?  Our  education  is  trying  year  by 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

year  to  touch  life  more  closely.  Our  religion,  calling  it 
self  Christian,  is  realizing  that  it  must  be  so  in  practise 
as  well  as  in  name  if  it  is  to  hold  the  allegiance  of  man 
kind.  There  has  never  been  a  clearer  challenge  to  re 
ligion,  as  Dr.  Haynes  says,  than  exists  to-day  the  world 
over  in  this  matter  of  interracial  relations.  It  was  a 
question  of  the  day  in  the  time  of  Christ,  and  we  know 
how  he  met  it. 

Surely  I  think  we  may  have  the  hopeful  note,  and 
meanwhile  do  the  thing  which  seems  right  for  the  day. 
Dr.  Haynes  says :  "A  close  observation  of  opinion  among 
all  classes  of  Negroes  discloses  a  slowly  increasing  spirit 
of  resistance  to  injustice  and  mistreatment."  This  is 
true,  and  it  heightens  the  challenge  to  .all  who  are  wish 
ing  and  working  for  good  relations.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  disappointment  has  come,  especially  since  the  World 
War.  But,  as  a  friend  has  pointed  out,  the  white  people, 
as  well  as  the  colored  people,,  had  expectations  beyond 
the  realization.  The  world  is  still  a  long  way  from  being 
safe  for  democracy.  The  fact  is  that  great  permanent 
changes,  as  readers  of  history  know,  take  time,  and  are 
not  very  much  accelerated  even  by  crises,  (it  is  natural 
that  there  should  be  disappointment  and  resentment, 
,and  yet  I  have  a  profound  belief  in  the  practical  common- 
sense  of  the  masses  of  the  Negro  people. 

An  underlying  thought  of  the  present  volume  is  given 
by  the  author  himself.  "Through  all  the  chapters,"  he 
says,  "and  implicit  in  every  section  is  the  theme  that 
the  relations  of  the  two  races  finally  rest,  not  upon  wealth 
or  poverty,  not  upon  things  or  lack  of  them,  but  upon 
the  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  attitudes  and  habits  of 
conduct  of  life  that  grow  out  of  the  experiences  of  the 
two  races  as  they  have  contact  in  agriculture,  industry, 
education,  government,  religion,  and  the  like.  The  great 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

hope  of  the  future  is  that  the  ideals  of  Jesus  may  deter 
mine  the  conditions  of  these  experiences  and  the  condi 
tions  of  these  contacts."  But  this  general  statement  is 
by  no  means  an  indication  of  the  contents.  The  book  is 
full  of  important  facts  and  opinions.  It  is  a  timely  and 
useful  book.  Its  author  is  a  man  of  education  and  high 
intelligence,  whose  peculiar  opportunities  of  seeing  all 
conditions  of  life  among  his  people,  and  of  knowing  their 
thoughts,  entitle  him  to  be  a  spokesman  and  interpreter. 
I  should  say  that  the  chief  value  of  the  book  lies  in  this, 
that  we  have  here,  from  such  a  man,  a  frank  and  philo 
sophical  statement  and  interpretation  of  "things  as  they 
are,"  as  he  honestly  sees  them. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

CHAPTER  I 
We  Face  the  Future 

SOUTH  and  west  from  Philadelphia,  one  may  visit 
here  and  there  the  open  spaces  and  modest  buildings  of 
boarding-schools,  institutes,  and  a  few  colleges  filled  with 
cheerful,  buoyant  youths  whose  smiling  faces  range  in 
complexion  from  the  luster  of  ebony  to  the  radiance  of 
polished  ivory.  Frequently  one  will  find  white  teachers, 
but  year  by  year  they  become  fewer  in  number,  as  com 
petent  men  and  women  of  color  arise  and  racial  separa 
tion  increases.  A  glance  into  the  classrooms,  the  prayer 
services,  the  dormitories,  the  laboratories,  and  work 
shops,  and  an  inspection  of  the  play  activities  and  student 
organizations  brings  an  impression  of  institutions  similar 
in  kind  to  others  in  America,  except  that  equipment  in 
buildings,  apparatus,  books,  and  so  forth  is  much  less, 
efficiency  from  lack  of  funds  is  limited,  and  the  recruits 
have  come  largely  from  less  advanced  homes  and  com 
munities.  At  important  central  locations  in  every  state 
of  the  South  these  institutions  struggle  on  from  year  to 
year  on  meager  funds  supplied  mainly  by  church  mis 
sionary  organizations.  They  send  forth  thousands  of 
young  people  with  a  view  of  things  in  our  modern  world 
and  with  a  larger  purpose  for  the  one  life  they  have  to 
live. 

Turning  into  Negro  neighborhoods  in  Southern  cities 
such  as  Louisville,  Nashville,  Memphis,  Birmingham, 
Atlanta,  or,  in  smaller  places,  such  as  Bowling  Green, 
Ky.,  Columbia,  Tenn.,  Athens,  Ga.,  Huntsville,  Ala., 

i 


2  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Jackson,  Miss.,  or  in  rural  districts,  the  traveler  finds 
scores  of  men  and  women  of  education,  character,  and 
culture  who  have  been  prepared  in  these  schools  and 
colleges  for  service  as  teachers,  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
doctors,  dentists,  lawyers,  editors,  and  business  men.  In 
quiry  among  their  neighbors  about  these  men  and  women 
— especially  such  white  neighbors  as  have  taken  time  and 
pains  to  know  them — will  bring  words  of  commendation. 

Typical  pioneers  in  race  relations.  Into  a  rural 
school  of  a  Virginia  county  entered  a  plain,  little  dark 
Negro  woman,  sent  out  from  one  of  the  schools  founded 
by  missionary  zeal.  She  began  lovingly  to  visit  between 
school  hours  the  homes  of  the  people  and  then  to  adapt 
the  teaching  of  the  children  who  came  from  these  homes 
so  that  they  might  apply  the  knowledge  she  sought  to 
give  them  at  school  to  their  daily  lives  around  their 
country  homes.  Her  work  caught  the  eye  and  the  ap 
proval  of  the  young  white  county  school  superintendent. 
He  encouraged  her,  studied  the  results  of  her  work,  and 
soon  sent  her  about  his  district  to  instruct  other  teach 
ers.  The  state  of  Virginia  and  the  Jeanes  Foundation 
then  became  interested.  The  same  experiment  was  then 
tried  elsewhere — in  North  Carolina,  in  Alabama,  and  in 
other  states — with  the  result  that  to-day  all  the  Southern 
states  have  state  supervisors  of  Negro  rural  schools  and 
many  "traveling  teachers"  going  over  their  counties  to 
do  work  similar  to  that  which  one  Negro  woman  in  Vir 
ginia  demonstrated. 

The  story,  however,  is  getting  somewhat  ahead  of  it 
self.  The  pioneer  missionary  institutes  and  colleges  in 
sending  out  educated  leaders  to  schools,  churches,  and 
communities  made  a  profound  impression  on  that  part 
of  the  white  world  which  did  not  believe  that  the  freed 
slave  could  learn  and  develop  into  a  full-fledged  man. 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  3 

Once  this  disbelief  began  to  be  dispelled,  the  movement 
for  general  Negro  education  made  faster  headway.  The 
work  drew  the  interest  of  the  dean  of  an  aristocratic 
white  university,  who  resigned  to  become  the  head,  first 
of  one  then  of  two  funds  for  the  promotion  of  Negro 
education.  He  is  a  wise  man  in  his  generation.  These 
funds  have  been  carefully  distributed  in  two  directions: 
(i)  Many  of  the  struggling  institutions  for  the  better 
training  of  teachers  and  leaders  have  been  helped  from 
year  to  year,  and  (2)  rural  schools  have  been  helped  both 
toward  gaining  better  support  from  public  funds  and 
toward  better  standards  of  teaching.  Through  the  en 
couragement  and  support  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund, 
four  county  training-schools  for  better  education  of  rural 
Negro  teachers  were  started  in  as  many  counties  in  1912. 
These  schools  plan  to  develop  support  from  public  funds 
and  to  raise  the  grade  of  teachers  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
To-day  county  training-schools  have  multiplied  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven,  and  some  have 
become  good  county  high  schools. 

When,  in  1863,  the  emancipation  of  the  Negroes  was 
proclaimed,  among  the  white  students  in  a  missionary 
seminary  at  Rockford,  111.,  was  a  young  white  woman  of 
about  thirty,  Miss  Joanna  P.  Moore,  who  was  preparing 
to  go  as  a  missionary  to  China  or  India  or,  perhaps,  to 
Africa.  In  February  of  that  year  a  call  came  from 
Island  Number  Ten  in  the  Mississippi  River  for  a 
woman  to  work  among  the  Negro  refugee  mothers  and 
children.  Miss  Moore  responded  and  began  the  mission 
of  love  and  service  to  the  Negro  working  people  in  their 
homes  and  churches  and  schools.  She  was  practically 
without  salary,  she  lived  on  "government  rations,"  and 
was  shunned  by  local  white  people.  During  succeeding 
years  she  visited  the  homes  of  the  lowly  in  Arkansas, 


4  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  other  states,  helping  families 
to  find  lost  members,  teaching  cleanliness  in  person  and 
heart,  and  leading  the  people  to  learn  and  love  the  Bible. 
In  1884  Miss  Moore  started  a  "Bible  Band"  and  'Tire- 
side  School"  movement,  a  system  of  home  religious  in 
struction  and  cheer  for  mothers  and  families,  by  means 
of  a  little  magazine  called  Hope,  that  grew  to  have  a 
circulation  of  thousands.1  Before  her  passing  away  in 
1916,  her  work  had  developed  a  staff  of  devoted  Negro 
women  who  follow  in  her  footsteps. 

A  young  clergyman,  graduate  of  Oberlin  college  and 
seminary,  left  his  wife  and  young  child  to  become  a 
Union  army  chaplain  the  second  year  of  the  Civil  War. 
He  was  in  the  battles  of  Franklin  and  Nashville.  At  the 
latter  place,  after  the  war  closed,  in  abandoned  hospital 
barracks  turned  over  by  General  Fisk,  the  young  clergy 
man  started  a  school  for  the  hundreds  of  freedmen  who 
flocked  to  this  army  post.  After  planting  several  similar 
institutions  for  a  Northern  missionary  society,  he  re 
turned  to  be  the  president  of  the  one  at  Nashville.  For 
nearly  forty  years,  in  the  face  of  ostracism,  misunder 
standing  and  prejudice,  this  pioneer  laid  the  foundations 
deep  and  broad  for  one  of  the  leading  Negro  colleges,  now 
known  throughout  the  world  because  it  has  fostered 
Negro  music  and  the  most  liberal  culture. 

A  young  white  Southern  college  graduate  accepted  a 
call  in  the  early  seventies  to  start  a  school  for  Negroes 
in  a  small  Georgia  city.  In  the  face  of  the  belief  on  the 
part  of  many  white  people  that  Negro  boys  and  girls 
could  not  learn,  and  suffering  even  insult  and  desertion 
from  white  relatives  and  friends,  including  his  fiancee, 
he  opened  the  school  upstairs  over  a  grocery  store. 

1  Account  drawn  mainly  from  Brawley,  B.  G.,  Social  History 
of  the  American  Negro,  pp.  281-86. 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  5 

Later  he  moved  it  to  a  run-down  estate  in  the  sub 
urbs  and  developed  it  year  by  year,  winning  support 
from  his  own  church  and  from  individual  friends, 
until  a  good  normal  school  course  and  the  first  years  of 
college  instruction  were  supplied  to  the  many  students 
who  attended.  Throughout  a  long  life,  George  Williams 
Walker  lived  and  labored  in  Christian  love  for  the  Negro 
people.  He  had  the  joy  of  seeing  some  of  his  pupils  win 
national  recognition  for  their  achievements  and  service. 

In  the  late  eighties,  after  clashes  between  the  races  in 
Lowndes  County,  Alabama,  two  white  women,  one  from 
Massachusetts  and  one  from  Connecticut,  came  in  re 
sponse  to  a  Macedonian  call  and  started  a  rural  school 
about  three  miles  from  the  railroad  station  and  adjoining 
large  plantations.  Thirty  years  have  passed.  People, 
white  and  Negro,  have  changed;  likewise,  conditions. 
Negro  men  and  women  now  help  conduct  the  school 
which  has  grown  to  require  a  faculty  of  a  score.  One 
of  the  plantations  has  been  divided  into  small  farms. 
These  have  been  bought  on  the  installment  plan  by 
Negro  tenants,  with  the  assistance  of  the  former  owner. 
A  second  and  larger  plantation  is  now  going  through  the 
same  process.  Throughout  the  county  many  black  peas 
ant  farm  homes  have  been  improved,  churches  have  been 
built  or  remodeled,  roads  improved,  and  the  standards 
of  district  schools  have  been  raised.  A  local  white 
doctor,  a  close  critic,  admits  that  the  morals  of  the  people 
have  been  greatly  improved.  There  has  not  been  another 
"race  war." 

In  1912  a  young  white  Southern  clergyman  from  Van- 
derbilt  University,  as  a  part  of  his  work  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  began  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  Negroes. 
Associated  with  him  were  several  white  women  who  felt 
that  the  lore  of  God  and  man  which  impelled  their  church 


6  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

to  send  missionaries  to  Africa  beyond  the  seas  should 
also  be  applied  to  the  descendants  of  Africa  in  their  own 
town.  For  eight  years  they  developed  a  social  service 
movement  which,  not  only  helped  the  needy  Negroes  who 
came  within  their  influence,  but  created  a  new  atmosphere 
in  race  relations  in  Nashville  and  elsewhere.  Later,  that 
young  clergyman  was  transferred  to  Atlanta.  When  the 
exciting  and  fearful  days  came  with  the  return  of  the 
Negro  soldiers  from  France,  he  was  among  the  few  far- 
seeing  white  men  who  came  together  and  invited  Negro 
leaders  to  meet  with  them  to  try  whatever  might  be  done 
to  help  common-sense,  tolerance,  appreciation  of  the 
Negro  and  justice  to  him  to  prevail  over  prejudiced 
propaganda  and  unfounded  fears.  The  result  was  a  series 
of  interracial  committees  to  promote  cooperative  activi 
ties  that  have  prevented  friction,  counteracted  inflamma 
tory  propaganda,  and  promoted  constructive  efforts  for 
mutual  welfare. 

The  missionary  schools  and  colleges,  the  self-sacrific 
ing  men  and  women  who  offer  service  to  their  needy 
dark-skinned  fellow-men,  the  interracial  committees,  and 
cooperation  of  white  and  Negro  leaders  are  all  parts  of 
renewed  efforts  to  make  race  adjustments  on  the  basis 
of  brotherhood  rather  than  by  brutal  force.  These  efforts 
are  based  upon  the  conviction  that  good  instincts,  im 
pulses,  and  feelings  exist  in  men  of  all  races  and  can  be 
aroused  and  used  to  advance  the  welfare  of  all  wherever 
races  touch  hands  and  the  weaker  may  suffer  or  may  be 
in  need. 

Two  methods  of  race  adjustment.  Generally  prevail 
ing  opinion  has  regarded  the  conflict  of  interests  of 
classes,  nations,  and  races  as  due  solely  to  the  personal 
faults  or  human  depravity  of  the  opponents.  Such  be 
lief  in  depraved  human  nature  led  logically  to  the  idea 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  7 

and  habit  of  using  physical  force  where  interests  differed 
or  views  crossed.  By  blows  of  weapons  or  by  hunger 
produced  from  withholding  supplies,  obstreperous  indi 
viduals  or  groups  were  compelled  to  change  their  conduct 
to  suit  their  opponents,  or  they  were  killed  and  put  out 
of  the  running  altogether.  In -our  day,  a  more  humane 
idea  has  gradually  modified  our  view  of  human  deprav 
ity.  We  have  come  to  see  that,  to  a  large  extent,  pre 
vious  experiences  and  present  conditions  breed  the  feel 
ings,  attitudes,  and  habits  of  action  of  the  individuals  of 
the  community. 

Past  action  of  individuals  who  sought  individual  gain 
and  advantage  has  often  entailed  harmful  consequences 
and  hostile  attitudes  in  whole  communities.  Many  per 
sons  and  families  caught  in  the  net  of  resulting  habits 
are  prevented  from  developing  better  customs.  This  is 
illustrated  in  American  history.  The  early  settlers 
wanted  cheap  labor.  They  imported  Africans  when  in 
dentured  servants  from  Europe  could  no  longer  meet 
their  requirements  and  when  Indians  succumbed  to 
disease  or  massacred  their  masters.  They  had  little,  if 
any,  of  Jefferson's  vision  and  anxiety  for  their  country 
when  the  issue  between  freedom  and  slavery  could  no 
longer  be  postponed.  The  idealist  who  took  the  long 
view  of  the  general  welfare  and  who  opposed  the  system 
as  contrary  to  the  best  interests  of  all,  especially  after 
the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  had  made  cotton  the  king, 
was  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  The  multitudes 
heard,  but  heeded  not.  The  advantages  from  exploited 
labor  soothed  the  qualms  of  conscience  and  blurred  the 
vision  for  the  coming  days  of  reckoning.  Many  individ 
uals  and  families  suffered  the  consequences,  and  to-day 
we  are  wrestling  with  the  problems  which  resulted. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  early  in  the  nineteenth  century, 


8  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

appealed  to  the  people  of  America  for  a  peaceful  settle 
ment  of  the  slavery  issue  through  the  purchase  and  set 
ting  free  of  the  slaves.  Benjamin  Lunday  of  Baltimore 
proposed  a  system  of  gradual  emancipation  as  a  means 
of  peaceful  settlement  and  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  the 
system.  The  theory  of  settlement  by  conflict,  however, 
gained  headway.  The  clash  and  turmoil  of  wrar  followed. 
Nearly  a  million  lives  and  many  billions  of  dollars,  in 
cluding  pensions  now  being  paid,  were  consumed.  Deli 
cate  and  difficult  problems  for  which  the  present  genera 
tion  is  still  seeking  a  remedy  have  come  down  the  years 
as  a  result  of  the  appeal  to  force  to  settle  these  differ 
ences  of  views  and  of  interests. 

Conditions  surrounding  America's  choice.  Again, 
after  sixty  years,  America  has  come  to  a  place  of  choice 
between  cooperation,  for  the  general  welfare  and  perma 
nent  progress,  and  conflict  that  may  give  temporary  re 
lief.  The  nation  has  an  opportunity  to  demonstrate  prac 
tically  that  race  relations  in  community  life  can  be  thor 
oughly  settled  through  understanding,  justice,  and  good 
will.  The  contacts,  or  lack  of  them,  between  Negro  and 
white  citizens,  North  and  South,  furnish  the  concrete 
conditions  which  make  our  choices  definite  and  clothe  our 
contributions  to  world  problems  of  the  color  line  in  flesh 
and  blood  and  personality. 

Among  the  many  historical  elements  that  have  lingered 
from  the  past  and  those  that  confront  us  now,  the  follow 
ing  are  of  prime  importance  to  a  present-day  considera 
tion  of  racial  relations. 

First,  the  slave  was  emancipated  and  started  on  the 
road  to  freedom. 

Second,  the  master  was  liberated  and  given  an  oppor 
tunity  to  become  an  employer  of  free  labor. 

Third,  the  slave  plantation  crumbled.    The  tenant  plan- 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  9 

tation  with  its  share  croppers,  its  cash  renters,  its  share- 
cash  tenants,  and  its  large  number  of  day  laborers — 
"farm  hands" — has  replaced  the  older  system.  The 
struggling  Negro  farm  owner  has  appeared  and  made  re 
markable  advancement  both  in  landholding  and  in  meth 
ods  of  farming. 

Fourth,  the  movement  of  white  people  and  Negroes  to 
urban  centers  has  developed  and  increased.  Large  town 
and  city  Negro  populations  dependent  upon  labor  by  the 
day,  week,  or  month  grow  steadily.  ^ 

Fifth,  the  relations  between  white  and  Negro  races 
began  to  undergo  changes,  especially  in  three  aspects: 
(a)  The  older  generation  for  the  most  part  retained  the 
mental  attitude  growing  out  of  the  relations  of  the  past. 
In  the  South  to-day  many  individual  Negroes  put  their 
trust  in  their  "white  folks"  as  in  no  others.  These  white 
people  in  turn  believe  in  and  have  regard  for  "their 
Negroes"  as  for  no  others,  (b)  A  generation  of  Negroes 
who  know  not  slavery  has  grown  up  with  an  increasing 
race  consciousness  and  aspiration  for  American  oppor 
tunities,  (c)  The  descendents  of  the  non-slave-holding 
white  people  now  make  up  the  majority  of  the  population 
of  the  Southern  states  and  have  come  into  power  of  two 
kinds :  they  have  acquired  a  large  share  in  the  increasing 
industrial  occupations  and  a  large  voice  in  civic  and  politi 
cal  matters. 

Sixth,  with  the  race  consciousness  of  the  Negro  grad 
ually  rising  like  the  tides  of  the  sea,  has  come  a  restless 
ness  under  the  existing  restrictions,  limitations,  and  racial 
discriminations. 

Seventh,  the  races  have  been  drawing  apart :  a  cleavage 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  Separate  neighborhoods  in 
cities  and  impersonal  relations  on  large  plantations  and 
in  large  industrial  operations  where  both  races  are  em- 


io  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ployed  are  only  the  larger  outlines  of  a  more  detailed 
segregation  that  ramifies  in  many  directions.  In  city  and 
in  country  communities,  Negroes  and  white  people  attend 
different  churches.  In  the  last  fifty  years,  Negroes  have 
built  up  national  and  international  church  organizations 
managed  and  controlled  by  Negroes.  Separation  in 
schools,  public  and  private,  except  in  most  Northern 
states,  is  well-nigh  universal.  There  have  grown  up  the 
mission  colleges  and  secondary  schools  for  the  Negro 
youth,  fostered  by  the  Church  educational  and  home  mis 
sion  boards.  In  the  Southern  states,  on  all  railroad  trains 
there  are  separate  cars  or  compartments  in  cars  for  white 
and  colored  passengers.  State  laws  or  local  ordinances 
require  separation  regulations  on  street-cars.  The  old 
feeling  of  dependence  of  man  upon  master  is  rapidly  dis 
appearing  on  the  Negro  side,  and  the  old  feeling  of  pa 
ternal  protectiveness  is  disappearing  on  the  white  side  of 
the  line.  Many  white  people  and  Negro  people,  especially 
women  and  children,  spend  weeks,  months,  and  even 
years  without  any  personal  contact  with  those  of  the  op 
posite  race.  In  many  places  Negroes  are  buried  in  sepa 
rate  cemeteries. 

The  changed  situation  and  the  resulting  feelings,  atti 
tudes,  and  habits  were  very  concretely  set  forth  in  state 
ments  made  by  a  Negro  man  and  a  white  man  in  Missis 
sippi.1  The  Negro  was  a  man  of  mixed  blood,  a  country 
preacher,  and  he  gave  this  account  of  the  change  as  illus 
trated  in  the  three  generations  of  his  own  family:  "My 
father  was  born  and  brought  up  as  a  slave.  He  never 
knew  anything  else  until  after  I  was  born.  He  was 
taught  his  place  and  was  content  to  keep  it.  But  when 
he  brought  me  up,  he  let  some  of  the  old  customs  slip 

1  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor,  Negro  Migration  in  1916-1?,  pp.  33-34, 
report  of  R.  H.  Leavel,  "The  Negro  Migration  from  Mississippi." 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  II 

by.  I  know  there  are  certain  things  that  I  must  do,  and 
I  do  them,  and  it  doesn't  worry  me;  yet  in  bringing  up 
my  own  son,  I  let  some  more  of  the  old  customs  slip  by. 
He  has  been  through  the  eighth  grade;  he  reads  easily. 
For  a  year  I  have  been  keeping  him  from  going  to  Chi 
cago  ;  but  he  teils  me  this  is  his  last  crop,  that  in  the  fall 
he's  going.  He  says :  'When  a  young  white  man  talks 
rough  to  me,  I  can't  talk  rough  to  him.  You  can  stand 
that ;  I  can't.  I  have  some  education,  and  inside  I  have 
the  feelin's  of  a  ...  man.  I'm  going/  >! 

Compare  this  account  with  that  given  by  the  white  man, 
a  leading  political  thinker  in  Mississippi,  of  the  changed 
attitude  in  three  generations  of  his  own  family:  "My 
father  owned  slaves.  He  looked  out  for  them ;  told  them 
what  to  do.  He  loved  them,  and  they  loved  him.  I  was 
brought  up  during  and  after  the  Civil  War.  I  had  a 
'black  mammy'  and  she  was  devoted  to  me  and  I  to  her; 
and  I  played  with  Negro  children.  In  a  way  I'm  fond  of 
the  Negro;  I  understand  him,  and  he  understands  me; 
but  the  bond  between  us  is  not  as  close  as  it  was  be 
tween  my  father  and  his  slaves.  On  the  other  hand,  my 
children  have  grown  up  without  black  playmates  and 
without  a  'black  mammy/  The  attitude  of  my  children 
is  less  sympathetic  toward  Negroes  than  my  own.  They 
don't  know  each  other!' 

One  writer  has  called  public  opinion  "one  of  the  lieu 
tenants  of  God."  There  is  a  white  world  of  opinion  con 
cerning  the  Negro  and  how  he  should  be  treated.  There 
is  a  Negro  world  of  public  opinion  about  itself,  about 
white  people,  and  about  how  Negroes  should  act  toward 
them.  A  look  into  those  two  worlds  briefly  will  serve  as 
an  introduction  to  the  treatment  of  the  subject. 

White  and  Negro  public  opinion.  The  white  world 
of  opinion  in  America  still  believes  in  the  inferior  ca- 


12  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

parity  of  the  Negro  and  has  a  very  limited  knowledge  of 
Negro  progress.  This  estimate  was  made  a  generation  or 
two  ago.  Probably  the  exhibitions  of  physical  prowess 
by  the  Negro  soldiers,  Negro  athletes,  and  Negro  labor 
ers,  and  the  Negro's  ability  to  sustain  himself  as  a  free 
man  have  dispelled  some  of  the  belief  in  physical  in 
feriority  so  long  avowed  in  books  and  newspapers. 
There  still  remains,  however,  the  notion  that  the 
Negro  is  of  a  lower  order  of  the  human  species,  that  in 
mental  capacity  and  moral  qualities  he  is  inherently  in 
ferior,  and  that  there  is  a  chasm  so  fixed  as  to  constitute 
a  "fundamental  and  inescapable  difference"  which  may 
prevent  the  Negro  from  achieving  the  highest  in  modern 
civilization.1  The  theory  prevails  that  such  achievements 
in  pure  science,  art,  literature,  social  ideals,  and  the  like 
are  beyond  the  present  capacity  of  the  Negro.  This  view 
of  Negro  incapacity  is  usually  buttressed  by  appeals  to 
history  to  show  that  the  Negro  achieved  nothing  in  Africa, 
by  efforts  at  scientific  proof  of  inferior  physical  features, 
skull  form  and  brain  structure,  and  recently  by  use  of 
comparative  mental  tests.  This  question  will  be  treated 
in  later  pages  (Chapter  V  and  Appendix).  Here  the 
purpose  is  only  to  state  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the  white 
world. 

The  white  world  as  a  whole  has  the  view  also  that  the 
Negro  is  predominantly  criminal  and  in  other  ways  in 
herently  defective  and  delinquent  to  a  greater  degree  than 
other  elements  of  our  population.  This  popular  notion 
lies  back  of  the  usual  setting  of  news  by  the  greater  part 
of  the  press,  which  presents  its  reports  and  stories  in 
line  with  what  some  call  the  "conventional  opinion." 

1  Smith,  William  B.,  The  Color  Line,  pp.  29-74.  Page,  Thomas 
Nelson,  The  Negro:  The  Southerner's  Problem,  pp.  277-280. 
Morse,  John  T.,  Jr.,  Thomas  Jefferson,  p.  53. 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  13 

That  there  are  criminal  Negroes  apprehended  in  prob 
ably  larger  proportions  than  white,  is  true.  The  point 
is  not  to  argue  these  questions  of  fact,  but  to  record  the 
known  current  of  opinion  which  generalizes  wholesale  on 
the  few  facts  and  regards  a  whole  race  as  peculiarly 
delinquent. 

Modifying  to  some  extent  the  two  preceding  currents 
of  opinion  is  the  American  use  of  free  speech  and  re 
sponse  to  the  facts  when  disclosed.  With  increasing  as 
surance,  thoughtful  Negroes  and  their  friends  have  used 
the  American  tradition  of  free  speech  to  put  their  case 
before  the  tribunal  of  the  American  public.  As  a  rule, 
when  the  facts  have  been  ably  given  publicity,  the  Ameri 
can  people  have  responded  with  a  measure  of  fair  play. 
Abraham  Lincoln  knew  this  through  all  his  work  for  the 
Union  and  the  Negro.  Every  successful  effort  for  Negro 
advancement  and  better  race  relations  has  consciously  or 
unconsciously  utilized  this  response  of  white  public 
opinion. 

Public  opinion  of  the  Negro  world  *  during  the  present 
generation  has  crystallized  a  belief  among  Negroes  that 
the  race  has  something  to  be  proud  of ;  that  Negro  cul 
ture  and  achievement  are  substantial  and  worth  while. 
There  is  a  growing  Negro  race  pride.  They  have  tried 
to  make  this  known  to  the  world.  Probably  another  sig 
nificant  manifestation  of  this  opinion  is  its  interpretation 
of  expressions  from  white  newspapers.  For  example, 

1  The  use  of  "Negro"  as  a  race  designation  is  to  take  both 
terms  in  their  conventional,  popular  meaning.  The  terms  are 
not  used  in  an  ethnological  sense  based  upon  complexions,  hair 
forms,  or  head  forms  or  upon  cultural  types,  because  all  forms 
are  found  in  the  group  and  because  in  language,  literature,  art, 
religion,  industry,  and  other  items,  Negroes  have  very  largely 
appropriated  and  assimilated  the  culture  around  them;  They 
have,  however,  developed  a  solidarity  and  race  consciousness 
which  make  a  group  life  and  a  Negro  world  of  feeling,  thought, 
and  attitude, 


14          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

reports  in  white  newspapers  of  racial  clashes  are  regarded 
by  Negroes  as  prepared  to  excuse  the  white  participants 
and  to  blame  the  black  ones. 

There  may  be  discerned  three  shades  or  schools  of 
opinion  among  Negroes  with  reference  to  achievement 
of  their  rights  and  with  reference  to  their  relations  to 
their  white  neighbors.  In  European  terms  they  may  be 
called  "the  left  wing,"  "the  center,"  and  "the  right  wing." 
The  left  wing  is  of  recent  development.  It  has  two  di 
visions.  There  is  first  a  socialist  group  which  is  just  be 
ginning,  since  the  World  War,  to  secure  recruits  among 
Negroes.1  There  is  considerable  evidence  that  it  is  being 
fostered  by  white  socialists.  The  chief  organ  of  propa 
ganda  is  The  Messenger,  a  monthly  magazine  published 
in  New  York  and  ably  edited  by  two  young,  college-bred 
Negro  men.  They  have  utilized  the  dissatisfaction  which 
Negroes  have  felt  because  of  the  evils  of  lynching,  mob 
violence,  disfranchisement,  and  other  things  about  which 
the  race  has  been  restless.  Probably  from  a  fourth  to  a 
third  of  their  magazine  has  been  given  to  reports  and 
editorials  on  such  ills.  Their  propaganda  has  served  to 
draw  strength  from  such  publicity  about  ills  more  than 
from  the  intellectual  or  emotional  interest  any  consider 
able  number  of  Negroes  have  in  the  more  general  matters 
of  social  and  economic  reconstruction. 

Furthermore,  a  new  division  has  sprung  up  in  the  "left 
wing."  It  is  popularly  known  as  the  "Garvey  Move 
ment,"  from  the  name  of  Marcus  Garvey,  its  West  Indian 
founder.  This  is  an  organized  movement,  claiming  in 
1921  from  two  to  three  millions  of  dues-paying  members 
in  divisions,  branches,  and  chapters  of  a  "Universal 

1  Since  this  was  written,  an  attack  upon  the  Negro  Church  and 
upon  other  Negro  leaders  has  seemed  to  weaken  greatly  the 
influence  of  their  published  organ  and  their  speakers. 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  15 

Negro  Improvement  Association  and  African  Communi 
ties  League."  Such  divisions  are  advertised  in  the  United 
States,  Canada,  Central  America,  South  America,  the 
West  Indies,  and  in  Africa.  The  "Garveyites"  have  a 
newspaper,  The  Negro  World,  with  substantial  circula 
tion  in  all  these  parts  of  the  world.  A  traveler  just  re 
turned  from  a  year's  extensive  tour  of  Africa  reported 
that  Garvey  and  his  propaganda  were  known  to  the  na 
tives  wherever  he  went. 

The  two  ideas  this  movement  is  propagating  are 
"Africa  for  Africans"  and  the  securing  of  recognition  and 
fair  treatment  of  black  people  everywhere  by  organizing 
the  economic,  political,  intellectual,  and  moral  force  of 
Negroes  the  world  over  into  a  sort  of  provisional  African 
empire  to  force  recognition  from  the  white  world.  Busi 
ness  enterprises,  a  "Black  Star  Line"  to  run  steamships 
to  regions  populated  by  Negroes,  and  industrial  corpora 
tions,  are  parts  of  the  plans  that  have  drawn  during  a 
four-year  development  about  a  million  dollars  from  trust 
ing  Negroes,  to  be  wasted  by  visionary  and  impractical 
ones.1  The  leaders  raised  in  one  year  over  $200,000  for 
a  Liberian  Construction  Loan  and  launched  in  August, 
1921,  an  additional  "African  Redemption  Fund."  The 
"Garvey  Movement"  may  fail  because  of  bad  manage 
ment,  but  the  ideas  which  it  is  propagating  have  pro 
foundly  influenced  the  thinking  and  feeling  of  Negroes 
in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  to  say  nothing  of  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

The  second  school  of  Negro  public  opinion,  "the 
center,"  is  composed  of  those  who  might  be  designated 
as  the  spiritual  descendants  of  the  aggressive  abolitionists 

1  It  is  reported  that  Garvey  amd  some  of  his  associates  have 
been  indicted  recently  by  a  Federal  Grand  Jury  in  New  York  on 
charges  of  using  the  mails  to  defraud  investors  in  the  Black 
Star  Line  enterprise. 


16          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

of  a  previous  generation.  They  are  actively  and  hotly 
protesting  and  agitating  against  all  forms  of  color  dis 
criminations  and  injustices.  Their  slogan  for  years  has 
been  to  fight  and  continue  to  fight  for  citizenship  rights 
and  full  democratic  privileges  of  American  life.  This 
school  comprises  several  more  or  less  independent  groups. 
The  principal  one  is  the  National  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Colored  People.  Its  official  organ,  The 
Crisis,  is  the  leading  and  best  edited  Negro  magazine  in 
the  world.  The  Association  undoubtedly  has  the  hearty 
endorsement  of  the  largest  number  of  intelligent  Negroes 
of  America  that  know  about  it.  Its  80,000  members  are 
scattered  throughout  forty-six  states.  The  Association 
includes  in  its  membership  many  white  people  of  promi 
nence.  Its  annual  conventions  have  presented  upon  their 
programs  many  of  America's  foremost  speakers,  pub 
licists,  and  humanitarians.  They  have  fostered  the  Pan- 
African  Congress  which  is  agitating  for  self-determina 
tion  of  African  natives. 

The  third  school,  "the  right  wing,"  believes  in  full 
justice,  manhood  rights,  and  opportunities  for  Negroes, 
but  still  clings  to  methods  of  conciliation  and  the  preach 
ing  of  cooperation  and  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  militant  meth 
ods  of  agitation.  There  is  apparently  no  organization 
representing  this  school,  but  many  informal  groups  and 
Negro  agencies  have  such  an  attitude.  The  ablest  advo 
cates  of  this  school  have  centered  at  Tuskegee  and  Hamp 
ton  Institutes.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  objectives  of 
"the  center"  and  "the  right  wing"  do  not  differ.  The 
difference  comes  only  in  method  and  strategy.  The  two 
schools  are  seeking  the  same  city  of  American  oppor 
tunity,  but  each  is  undertaking  to  reach  it  by  somewhat 
divergent  roads. 

Those  of  the  third  school  are  having  difficulty,  how- 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  17 

ever,  to  hold  their  influence  with  the  masses  of  Negroes, 
not  only  because  of  the  pressure  from  the  other  two 
wings,  but  more  especially  because  of  the  tardy  response 
of  the  white  world  in  removing  some  of  the  outstanding 
ills  and  allowing  Negroes  to  share  in  those  advantages 
which  make  the  name  of  America  a  synonym  for  oppor 
tunity. 

A  close  observation  of  opinion  among  all  classes  of 
Negroes  discloses  a  slowly  increasing  spirit  of  resistance 
to  injustice  and  mistreatment.  The  following  are  some 
concrete  illustrations  from  statements  of  Negroes :  In 
1919,  at  the  time  of  the  Washington  (D.  C.)  riot,  "a 
most  reliable  Negro,  a  man  of  the  rank  and  file  of  work 
ers,  said :  'During  the  riot  I  went  home  when  through 
with  my  work  and  stayed  there,  but  I  prepared  to  pro 
tect  my  home.  If  a  Negro  had  nothing  but  a  fire  poker 
when  set  upon,  he  should  use  it  to  protect  his  home.  I 
believe  all  the  men  in  my  block  felt  the  same  way.  I 
know  they  stayed  'round  home  more  than  usual.'  An 
other  Negro,  a  porter,  said :  'We  are  tired  of  bein'  picked 
on  and  bein'  beat  up.  We  have  been  through  the  War 
and  given  everything,  even  our  lives,  and  now  we  are 
going  to  stop  bein'  beat  up.'  A  third,  commenting  on 
the  Chicago  riot,  said:  'These  things  (meaning  riots)  will 
keep  on  until  we  peaceable,  law-abiding  fellows  will  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  prepare  to  defend  our  lives  and 
families.'  A  Negro  teacher  said,  'The  accumulated  senti 
ment  against  injustice  to  colored  people  is  such  that  they 
will  not  be  abused  any  longer.'  "  x  Even  Negro  graduate 
students  are  beginning  academic  analysis  of  these  new 
currents  of  thought.2 

1  "What  Negroes  Think  of  the  Race  Riots,"  George  E.  Haynes, 
The  Public,  Aug.  9,   1919. 

2  Edward  Franklin  Frazier,  a  graduate  of  Howard  University 
and  a   former  teacher  at  Tuskegee   Institute,   submitted  as   his 


i8  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

The  task  in  racial  relations.  These  two  worlds  of 
opinion  outlined  in  the  preceding  paragraphs  have  grown 
up  as  the  two  races  have  developed  life  more  and  more 
separately.  They  do  not  now  know  each  other,  as  in  the 
past.  Here,  then,  is  the  task  in  racial  relations:  to  find 
ways  through  which  the  present  and  future  generations 
of  the  two  races  may  know  each  other  as  friends  and 
work  out  their  problems  together  as  American  citizens. 
The  old  relations  of  master  and  man,  mistress  and  maid 
are  gone,  never  to  return.  The  memories  of  "Marse 
Clair,"  of  "Miss  Eva,"  and  "Uncle  Tom,"  and  the  "black 
Mammy"  remain  as  the  recollections  of  sweet  but  bygone 
days.1  In  these  new  times  of  stress  and  strain'  the  grand 
children  of  these  cherished  ancestors  of  both  races  have 
a  challenge  to  find  that  gentleness  and  tenderness  of  heart 
and  strength  of  mind  which  will  enable  them  to  correct 
the  hostile  feelings,  attitudes,  and  customs  growing  out  of 
past  mistakes  and  present  evils  and  to  build  up  friendly 
relations. 

The  crucial  question  is,  Will  the  Negro,  growing  in 
population,  be  enabled  and  permitted  to  stand  upon  his 
feet  as  a  man  and  to  take  a  citizen's  place  in  the  onward 
marching  army  of  American  life  at  the  same  time  that 
his  white  neighbor  increases  in  numbers  and  advances  in 
the  ranks  of  progress  ?  As  indicated  above,  there  are  two 
points  of  view,  either  of  which  may  gain  headway.  White 
Americans  number  about  ninety  millions,  Negro  Ameri 
cans,  about  ten  millions ;  we  face  a  crucial  racial  situation. 
Shall  mutual  misunderstanding,  suspicions,  and  friction 

M.A.  thesis  at  Clark  University  an  unpublished  manuscript  on 
"New  Currents  of  Thought  Among  the  Colored  People  of 
America."  It  gives  an  appreciation  of  what  is  termed  in  this 
text  the  "left  wing"  of  Negro  opinion.  He  concludes  that 
"America  faces  a  new  race  that  has  awakened." 

1  See  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  work  cited,  pp.  163-165,  173-204. 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  19 

continue,  growing  more  and  more  acute  ?  Or  shall  mutual 
understanding,  tolerance,  and  good-will  replace  them? 
Shall  common  sense  or  brutal  force  prevail  ? 

The  machinery  of  government  and  law  can  do  a  great 
deal.  Attitudes  and  the  habits  of  thought  and  action  of 
both  individuals  and  groups,  however,  lie  back  of  govern 
ment  and  control  the  machinery  of  the  law.  While  regu 
larly  looking  to  the  law,  therefore,  the  two  races  have 
to  establish  those  relations  which  crystallize  into  law  and 
which  make  customs  and  governments.  Many  individuals 
of  a  national  or  racial  group,  as  they  have  struggled  with 
nature  or  among  themselves,  have  chosen  ways  of  acting 
in  the  face  of  their  surroundings  which  they  have  found 
to  result  in  pleasurable  experiences.  They  have  avoided 
or  tried  to  avoid  ways  of  acting  which  would  lead  to 
painful  or  unsatisfactory  experiences.  The  former  be 
come  approved  as  the  right  ways  to  act,  and  the  latter  are 
disapproved  as  the  wrong  ways  to  act,  and  out  of  these 
approvals  and  disapprovals  grow  up  group  attitudes,  laws, 
and  customs  of  conduct.  The  approved  and  disapproved 
ways  of  acting  become  fixed  as  conventional  "public  opin 
ion," — "folkways"  and  "mores"  if  you  please, — some 
helpful,  and  some  harmful.  The  mental  background  of 
the  individuals  is  made  up  of  such  ideas  from  which  each 
new  situation  is  met  and  handled.1  These  attitudes  and 
customs  are  spread  from  community  to  community  and 
from  one  generation  to  another.  The  opportunity,  then, 
that  individuals  and  groups  and  races  have  to  learn  to 
avoid  the  ways,  attitudes,  and  feelings  that  have  proven 
harmful  and  to  cultivate  those  that  have  proven  truly 
pleasurable  and  helpful,  will  largely  determine  their  abil- 

1  For  the  theory  of  folkways  and  mores,  see  Societal  Evolution, 
A.  G.  Keller,  pp.  30-38;  for  the  idea  of  milieu  see  Race  Prejudice, 
Jean  Finot,  pp.  129-132,  172-175. 


20  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ity  to  meet  the  demands  of  modern  life.  These  experi 
ences  from  the  past  might  be  called  the  mental  property 
of  the  nation.  To  find  ways  and  means  for  both  races 
to  share  in  this  mental  property  so  that  better  feelings, 
attitudes,  and  ways  of  acting  under  present  conditions 
may  become  the  approved  ways,  is  the  problem  of  pro 
moting  better  racial  relations.  The  people  must  learn 
good- will,  tolerance,  justice,  and  cooperation  by  such 
means  when  the  sky  is  clear,  or  they  will  find  it  too 
late  when  the  lightning  of  mobs  and  lynching  flashes  and 
the  thunder  of  riot  rolls.  In  the  past,  the  white  man  has 
helped  the  Negro  survive  and  develop  in  America,  and 
the  Negro  has  largely  thought  of  his  development  for  the 
white  man's  use.  A  fear  has  come  to  the  white  man  that 
painful  experience  may  come  to  him  when  the  Negro  is 
no  longer  to  be  merely  a  servant,  and  this  is  tending  to 
increase  friction  between  the  races.  Humanitarian  and 
Christian  forces  have  the  task  of  teaching  that  the  fear 
is  unfounded  and  that  the  white  people  and  the  Negro 
people  can  and  should  work  together  for  mutual. advance 
ment. 

This  great  task  is  intertwined  in  the  many  problems  of 
the  so-called  "race  problem."  They  may  be  summarized 
as  the  problems  of  Negro  progress — economic,  educa 
tional,  social,  and  religious,  the  problems  of  Negro  citi 
zenship,  and  the  problem  of  attitudes  and  habitual  action 
of  the  white  world.  These  fundamental  problems  lie 
back  of  and  produce  that  public  opinion  of  the  two 
groups,  briefly  described  in  this  chapter.  The  question 
of  Negro  progress  is  dealt  with  in  Chapter  II,  followed 
by  a  discussion  in  Chapter  III  of  the  Negro's  capacity  for 
achievement  as  further  shown  by  his  internal  response 
to  the  world  without  him.  The  problems  of  Negro  citi 
zenship  are  taken  up  in  Chapter  IV  from  the  standpoint 


WE  FACE  THE  FUTURE  21 

of  the  Negro's  devotion  to  and  sacrifice  for  the  Stars 
and  Stripes,  the  symbol  of  the  common  man's  opportunity 
to  determine  his  governors.  The  problem  of  the  attitude 
and  habitual  action  of  the  white  world  is  treated  in 
Chapter  V.  The  closing  chapter  undertakes  to  analyze 
the  fundamental  principles  and  ideals  which  underlie  the 
theory  that  cooperation  rather  than  conflict  should  de 
termine  race  relations  of  the  future.  In  this  chapter,  also, 
the  attempt  is  made  to  point  out  the  principal  organiza 
tions  and  institutions,  the  home,  the  school,  the  state,  the 
church,  and  auxiliary  organizations,  besides  the  economic 
institutions,  through  which  the  friendly  and  pleasurable 
contacts  of  the  two  races  are  to  be  made. 

Through  all  the  chapters  and  implicit  in  every  section 
of  this  book  is  the  theme  that  the  relations  of  the  two 
races  finally  rest,  not  upon  wealth  or  poverty,  not  upon 
things  or  lack  of  them,  but  upon  the  mental,  social,  and 
spiritual  attitudes  and  habits  of  conduct  of  life  that  grow 
out  of  the  feeling  experiences  of  the  two  races  as  they 
have  contact  in  agriculture,  industry,  education,  govern 
ment,  religion,  and  the  like.  The  great  hope  of  the  future 
is  that  the  ideals  of  Jesus  may  determine  the  conditions 
of  these  experiences  and  the  conditions  of  these  contacts. 

The  new  world  problems  are  problems  of  the  color  line. 
Peoples  and  races  are  struggling  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  the  Americas  to-day  to  find  peaceful  relations. 
The  ups  and  downs  of  their  struggles  are  before  us  as 
we  watch  the  dealings  of  the  strong  with  the  weak,  the 
wealthy  with  the  poor,  the  white  with  the  black  the  world 
over.  Everywhere,  white  and  black,  yellow  and  brown 
are  seeking  happiness  which  all  crave.  All  these  peoples 
are  weary  from  the  tumult  and  the  shouting  of  the  last 
and  greatest  of  wars  and  long  for  peace  and  prosperity 
and  perhaps  a  warless  world.  As  with  other  questions, 


22  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

so  with  this,  the  means  of  getting  what  they  want  in 
America,  at  least,  may  be  close  at  hand  if  they  open 
their  eyes  and  see  them.  Concrete  demonstration  in  many 
localities  in  our  country  where  white  and  Negro  Ameri 
cans  reside  that  two  races  can  live  peaceably  together 
and  develop  may  be  one  of  the  greatest  contributions  we 
can  make  to  the  world  problems  of  color. 


CHAPTER  II 
Sixty  Years  of  Progress 

VISCOUNT  BRYCE  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the 
American  Negro  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  his  liberation 
made  greater  advance  than  was  ever  made  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  a  similar  period.  Twice  thirty  years  have  now 
passed,  producing  rapid  changes  in  Negro  life.  It  is 
fitting  to  inquire  into  the  signs  of  that  progress.  The 
progress  of  a  people  cannot  be  set  down  in  figures. 
We  may  reckon  their  wealth,  but  we  cannot  measure 
the  struggles  that  secured  their  possessions.  As  one 
counts  their  schoolhouses  and  the  children  who  go  into 
them,  as  one  works  out  the  percentages  of  illiteracy  and 
considers  their  alertness  in  learning  to  read,  to  write, 
and  to  figure,  he  may  remember  that  these  are  only  a 
part  of  their  struggles  upward  from  the  dark  caverns 
of  ignorance.  Counting  the  offices  they  hold,  the  votes 
they  cast,  and  the  participation  they  take  in  civic  affairs 
is  a  very  meager  means  of  reckoning  their  progress  in 
the  habits  of  self-government.  It  is  also  impossible  to 
picture  the  development  from  slave  cabins  to  homes  and 
families  of  culture  and  refinement. 

These  are  positive  signs,  however,  of  the  onward  march 
of  a  people  struggling  up  from  serfdom  towards  freedom, 
from  ignorance  towards  intelligence,  from  poverty 
towards  competence,  and  from  degradation  towards  the 
place  where  one  of  the  world's  great  statesmen  acknowl 
edges  that  the  rapidity  of  their  progress  has  outstripped 
that  of  his  own  people.  The  circumstances  have,  of 
course,  been  unique.  Negroes  have  lived  among  most 
aggressive  and  progressive  neighbors.  The  strongest 
political  power  was  thrown  into  the  scales  to  raise  them 

23 


24          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

from  the  status  of  slaves  to  that  of  legal  freedmen.  As 
Negroes  had  been  the  main  labor  dependence  of  the 
South,  when  slave  labor  was  no  longer  legal,  their  labor 
was  then  in  demand  on  a  wage  basis.  It  is  true  that  the 
wages  were  often  meager,  and  the  conditions  of  life  on 
the  plantation  were  sometimes  little  removed  from  previ 
ous  conditions.  It  cannot  be  denied,  furthermore,  that 
the  freedmen  were  shut  out  from  many  of  the  higher 
avenues  of  employment  and  that  discriminations  of  many 
kinds  were  practiced  against  them.  But  ere  the  smoke 
of  the  Civil  War  had  cleared  away,  missionary  teachers, 
evangels  they  were,  opened  schoolhouses  and  set  before 
the  freedmen,  not  only  the  rudiments  of  knowledge,  but 
examples  of  clean  living,  high  thinking,  and  brotherly 
cooperation.  There  is  no  brighter  page  in  the  history 
of  Christian  missions  than  the  work  and  devotion  of 
these  teachers. 

But  no  matter  what  the  surroundings  were  or  what 
encouragement  they  have  had,  unless  there  had  been 
inherent  in  the  Negro  people  large  capacities,  unbounded 
aspirations  and  a  willingness  to  work,  there  never  would 
have  been  such  progress  in  sixty  years.  Starting  as  they 
did  with  meager  resources  in  wealth  and  in  intelligence, 
they  entered  the  paths  of  freedom  with  their  faces  set 
toward  the  rising  sun  of  progress  and  their  hearts  singing 
hopeful  songs  of  reward.  To  paraphrase  what  Frederick 
Douglass  once  said  of  himself,  Negroes  should  be  con 
sidered,  not  by  the  heights  they  have  reached,  but  by  the 
depths  from  which  they  have  come. 

Progress  in  economic  relations.  In  support  of  the 
statement  that  the  Negroes  are  a  wage-earning  people, 
four  important  facts  meet  us  at  the  threshold : 

(i)  In  1910  there  were  71  per  cent  of  Negroes  in  the 
United  States  and  87.6  per  cent  of  those  in  the  South 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  25 

ten  years  of  age  and  over  gainfully  employed.  Many 
married  women  were  helping  to  earn  the  daily  bread  for 
the  family.  The  percentage  of  Negro  married  women 
gainfully  employed  was  about  three  times  as  large  as  the 
percentage  of  white  women  so  employed.  At  that  time 
Negroes  constituted  about  one  seventh  of  the  total  work 
ing  population  in  the  United  States. 

(2)  Nearly  all  of  these  Negro  wage-earners  were  em 
ployed  by  white  people.     Furthermore,  in  both  agricul 
ture  and  industry  these  Negro  workers  were  engaged  in 
the  same  occupations,  often  on  the  same  jobs,  as  white 
workers. 

(3)  While  the  overwhelming  majority  of  Negro  work 
ers  to-day  are  in  the  unskilled,  lower  paid,   industrial 
occupations,    in    domestic    and    personal    service,    or    in 
agriculture,  they  have  shown  marked  increase  in  indus 
trial  occupations,  in  distinction  from  the  agricultural,  and 
from  domestic  and  personal  service.     In  manufacturing 
and  mechanical  pursuits  in  the  20  years  between   1890 
and  1910,  Negroes  increased  about  165.3  Per  cent.     In 
trade  and  transportation  during  the  same  period,  they 
increased  about  129.5  per  cent. 

The  proportion  of  Negro  male  persons  engaged  in 
agriculture  remained  practically  the  same  between  1890 
and  1910.  Negro  female  persons  engaged  in  agriculture 
increased  from  about  one  sixth  to  nearly  one  third  of 
those  gainfully  employed.  The  gain  for  both  sexes  was 
about  66.6  per  cent  in  20  years,  between  1890  and  1910. 
In  domestic  and  personal  service  the  gain  was  about  65 
per  cent  in  20  years,  between  1890  and  1910. 

In  short,  during  the  twenty  years  ending  in  1910  Negro 
workers  showed  a  very  slow  increase  in  domestic  and 
personal  service,  a  slightly  higher  increase  in  agri 
culture,  a  still  higher  increase  in  trade  and  transports- 


26  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

tion,  and  the  highest  increase  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  pursuits.  These  figures  cover  a  period  pre 
ceding  the  World  War  and  the  heavy  Negro  migration 
North.  The  greatest  increase  of  Negroes  in  industrial 
occupations  has  taken  place  since,  as  a  consequence  of 
the  high  wages  during  the  World  War  and  the  demand 
for  their  labor,  so  that  there  are  probably  larger  numbers 
in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits  than  shown  by 
the  available  figures  up  to  1910. 

(4)  Previous  to  the  World  War  and  the  entrance  of 
Negroes  in  large  numbers,  mainly  migrants  from  the 
South,  into  Northern  industrial  plants,  many  local  unions 
of  white  workmen,  except  in  a  few  localities  like  New 
Orleans,  La.,  Birmingham,  Ala.,  and  Chicago,  111.,  either 
excluded  Negroes  from  their  organizations  or  did  not 
encourage  their  joining,  even  in  the  face  of  their  national 
constitutions  and  the  liberal  statements  of  policy  by  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor. 

Development  in  industrial  relations.  The  first  field 
o,f  occupations  in  historical  importance  is  employment  in 
Southern  agriculture,  principally  in  the  raising  of  cotton, 
of  corn,  of  sugar-cane,  and  of  tobacco. 

The  second  field  is  in  Southern  industry  which  has 
grown  by  leaps  and  bounds  since  iSSo.1  Southern  rail 
roads,  mills  (except  cotton  mills),  mines,  and  other  in 
dustries  are  mainly  supplied  by  Negro  workers.  The 
railroads  of  the  South  have  Negro  section  gangs,  sta 
tion  and  terminal  employees,  Negro  firemen,  train  porters, 
Pullman  porters,  and  dining-car  waiters.  The  coal  and 
iron  mines  of  the  district  centering  at  Birmingham,  Ala., 
would  stop  at  least  for  a  time  if  deprived  of  their  Negro 

1  Haynes,  George  E.,  The  Negro  at  Work  in  New  York  City, 
pp.  19-23;  also  Murphy,  Edward  G.,  Problems  of  the  Present 
South,  pp.  97-125. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  27 

laborers.  Steel  mills,  iron  foundries,  shipyards,  saw 
mills  and  lumber  camps,  cotton  compresses  and  oil  mills 
of  the  South  look  upon  Negro  brawn  and  sometimes  the 
brain  as  their  mainstay. 

The  third  large  field  of  Negro  labor,  Northern  industry, 
has  undergone  a  great  change  during  the  past  ten  years. 
In  1910  the  overwhelming  majority  of  Negro  wage  earn 
ers  in  Northern  industrial  centers  were  restricted  to  per 
sonal  and  domestic  service  occupations.  In  a  study  of 
the  "Negro  at  Work  in  New  York  City"  in  1 908-1910  x 
it  was  found  that  about  70  per  cent  of  Negro  men  and 
about  89  per  cent  of  Negro  women  gainfully  employed 
were  working  as  elevator  operators,  porters,  janitors,  gen 
eral  houseworkers,  cooks,  maids,  and  as  other  domestic 
and  personal  servants.  Such  occupations  for  women  as 
pressers,  bushelers,  and  operators  of  power  machines  in 
clothing  factories,  and  such,  among  men,  as  carpenters, 
bricklayers,  and  other  workers  in  the  erection  of  build 
ings  wrere  almost  completely  closed  to  Negroes.  The 
World  War  brought  a  great  change  in  this  respect. 

The  tide  of  European  immigrants  who  formerly  sup 
plied  a  large  part  of  the  unskilled  and  semiskilled  labor 
during  the  W^ar  ceased  to  flow  because  many  workers 
were  called  to  the  defense  of  their  native  lands.  The 
captains  of  Northern  industry  looked  South  and  beheld 
a  surplus  of  Negro  workers.2  Besides  the  normal  excess 
of  workers  in  proportion  to  jobs,  thousands  were  un- 

1  Haynes,  G.  E.,  work  cited,  pp.  72-77. 

2  For  a  full  discussion  of  Negro  migration,  see  United  States 
Department  of  Labor  report,  Negro  Migration  in  1916-1?,  made 
from  investigations  on  the  ground   in   several  states  by   R.   H. 
Leavel,  T.  R.  Snanely,  T.  J.  Woofter,  Jr.,  W.  T.  B.  Williams, 
and  Francis  D.  Tyson.     See  also  articles  by  G.   E.  Haynes  in 
Survey  for  Jan.  4  and  May  4,  1918.    Also  "The  Negro  Migration 
of   1916-1918"  by  Henderson  H.   Donald,  in  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  VI,  No.  4,  pp.  383-485. 


28          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

employed  in  1915  because  of  floods  and  droughts  in  sev 
eral  farming  districts,  because  of  the  drop  in  cotton 
prices,  and  because  of  the  depression  in  many  Southern 
industries.  Agents  of  industrial  plants  and  railroads — 
the  Pennsylvania,  the  Erie,  the  New  York  Central,  and 
other  railroads — went  South  to  solicit  laborers.  The 
Negroes  responded  by  the  thousands.  Census  figures 
for  1920  show  a  net  gain  in  the  North  and  West  of 
about  400,000  over  1910. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Home  Missions  Council x  in 
January,  1918,  an  official  of  the  New  York  Central  Rail 
road  told  his  experiences  in  bringing  Negro  workers  from 
the  South : 

"The  early  summer  of  1916  the  Chief  Engineer  found 
that  the  road  was  short  five  hundred  track  laborers  and 
had  been  for  two  months.  He  called  on  me  to  study  the 
matter  and  answer  two  questions:  (i)  Why  can  we  not 
get  men  this  year  as  in  former  years  for  our  track  work  ? 
(2)  What  must  I  do  to  get  five  hundred  more  men  on  our 
track  at  once? 

"For  a  good  many  years  we  had  been  employing  for 
eigners  who  had  quite  recently  come  from  the  south  of 
Europe.  Our  track  supervisors  had  generally  a  poor 
opinion  of  the  American  hobo.  We  had  never  used  any 
Mexicans,  Negroes,  Japanese,  or  Chinese.  I  found  out 
soon  that  our  best  city  from  which  to  secure  these  for 
eigners  from  the  south  of  Europe  was  Chicago.  I  placed 
an  order  there  with  three  of  our  most  reliable  labor 
agencies  for  fifty  men  each.  They  got  for  us  but  fifteen 
men  in  all  in  two  weeks.  I  also  visited  Indianapolis, 
Cincinnati,  Louisville,  and  St.  Louis.  I  got  reliable 
knowledge  of  the  labor  situation  in  Buffalo,  Detroit,  Kan 
sas  City,  and  Cairo. 

"I  then  reported  to  the  Chief  Engineer  as  follows : 
'You  cannot  get  men  this  year  as  in  former  years  be 
cause  the  kind  of  men  you  have  hired  heretofore  have 

1  See  Annual  Report. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  29 

gone  back  to  fight  the  battles  of  their  mother  countries 
in  Europe.  You  are  running  your  head  against  a  stone 
wall.  You  must  go  where  men  can  be  hired  in  order  to 
get  five  hundred  men  at  once.  There  are  two  such  places. 
One  is  the  Pacific  Coast,  where  American-born  white  men 
are  now  looking  for  work.  But  it  is  far  to  go.  The 
other  place  is  at  the  Ohio  River  and  south  of  it.  But 
in  that  southland  the  common  laborer  is  the  Negro.  You 
have  never  had  Negro  labor  on  the  tracks.  Our  foremen 
do  not  know  how  to  handle  Negroes.  There  are  possible 
race  problems.  Do  you  want  Negroes?'  .  .  . 

"In  a  few  days  he  said  to  me :  'Go  and  get  the  Negroes/ 
We  got  five  hundred  Negroes  on  our  track  within  thirty 
days.  We  continued  in  1916  until  we  had  brought  fifteen 
hundred  Negroes.  We  housed  them  in  temporary  houses, 
in  the  main.  Some  were  in  camp  cars. 

"No  complaint  of  thieving  or  disorder  or  any  mis 
conduct  was  ever  made  by  the  citizens  on  our  lines.  The 
Negro  was  more  orderly  than  the  hobo  or  the  Italian. 
He  was  cleaner  than  the  Greek  or  Austrian.  One  of  our 
veteran  supervisors  of  track  said :  'The  Negro  eats — the 
Italian  does  not.  The  Negro  is  big,  he  is  good  natured, 
and  he  speaks  my  language.  I  can  get  along  with  him/ 
At  the  close  of  the  working  season  I  asked  the  Chief 
Engineer  how  we  had  got  along  with  Negro  labor.  He 
replied :  'How  could  we  have  got  along  without  it  ?'  .  .  . 

"The  Negro  is  a  gang  worker.  He  is  not  a  soloist.  He 
is  superstitious,  lacks  initiative,  and,  taken  alone,  is  scared 
even  of  the  dark.  He  is  not  a  man  for  work  requiring 
risk.  He  is  strong,  reliable,  peaceable,  American,  for  he 
came  here  with  us  and  has  been  copying  us  ever  since. 
The  black  man  wants  work  at  better  pay.  He  is  quite 
moral,  very  religious,  and  several  times  more  an  Ameri 
can  than  the  other  laborer  with  whom  he  has  come  here 
to  enter  into  competition.  He  is  a  hopeful,  industrial 
asset,  not  a  menace,  no  anarchist,  no  plotter." 

There  were  four  classes  of  Negro  migrants.  The  first 
was  composed  of  the  floating  Negro  casual  laborers 
largely  produced  by  the  past  system  of  economy  under 


30  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

which  they  have  worked  and  lived.  The  second,  the 
majority,  were  the  thrifty,  middle-class,  honest,  hard 
working,  semiskilled,  and  unskilled  workers  who  sought 
better  wages,  better  conditions  of  labor,  and  better  living 
conditions.  The  third  class  comprised  a  considerable 
number  of  skilled  artisans  such  as  carpenters,  brick 
masons,  and  tailors.  These  three  classes  were  accom 
panied  and  followed  by  a  fourth  class,  a  number  of  en 
terprising  Negro  business  men,  such  as  small  retail  shop 
keepers,  insurance  agents  and  solicitors,  and  a  number 
of  professional  men — doctors,  lawyers,  and  ministers. 
The  wives  and  children,  aunts,  uncles,  cousins,  and  other 
members  of  families  completed  the  number  that  made 
up  nearly  half  a  million  or  so  migrants  who  moved  North 
between  1915  and  1920. 

The  effect  on  the  South  of  this  wholesale  movement 
of  Negroes  was  widespread.  A  shortage  of  labor  both 
in  agriculture  and  industry  was  created.  Wages  were 
increased  to  unprecedented  levels.  Treatment  of  the 
workers  and  plantation  tenants  improved.  City  councils, 
chambers  of  commerce,  and  business  men's  organizations, 
county  officials,  and  even  state  officials  and  legislatures 
took  steps  to  meet  the  situation.  Some  repressive  meas 
ures  were  attempted  to  stop  the  movement  in  different 
places,  but,  for  the  most  part,  the  migrants  moved  as 
they  were  inclined.1  Humanitarian,  religious,  and  eco 
nomic  motives  began  to  run  in  the  same  direction.  Social 
agencies  found  the  business  interests  now  actively  con 
cerned  in  plans  for  better  schools,  better  housing,  more 
nearly  even-handed  justice  in  the  courts,  and  other  im 
provements. 

The  effect  in  the  North  was  also  far-reaching.     For 

1  Donald,  Henderson  H.,  work  cited,  pp.  425-431. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  31 

example,  the  Negro  population  of  Chicago  more  than 
doubled,  increasing  148  per  cent  between  1910  and  1920; 
that  of  Detroit  increased  from  about  6,000  to  more  than 
30,000  in  four  years,  that  of  Cleveland,  Pittsburgh,  Phila 
delphia,  and  New  York  increased  from  50  to  70  per  cent. 
Smaller  cities  and  towns  increased  in  similar  proportion. 
In  six  or  eight  of  the  basic  industries  in  some  of  the 
Northern  industrial  cities,  Negroes  filled  the  gap  in  semi 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor.  A  partial  investigation  of 
the  Department  of  Labor  in  1919-20,  the  only  data  of 
its  kind  available,  showed  4,260  white  men  and  2,222 
Negro  men  engaged  in  194  occupations  in  23  establish 
ments  of  the  six  basic  industries;  namely,  foundries, 
slaughtering  and  meat-packing,  automobiles,  iron  and 
steel  and  their  products,  and  glass  manufacturing.  In 
the  slaughtering  and  meat-packing  plants  of  Chicago, 
where  one  Negro  was  employed  in  1915,  from  four  to 
five  were  employed  in  1919-20.  The  foundries  and  hard 
ware  factories  of  Cleveland,  Youngstown,  and  other 
Ohio  centers  either  increased  their  Negro  workers  or 
employed  Negroes  for  the  first  time.  The  steel  mills  in 
and  around  Pittsburgh  rivaled  in  complexion  those  of 
Birmingham,  Ala.  In  the  six  basic  industries  where 
Negroes  were  employed  in  considerable  numbers,  com 
parison  with  white  workmen  in  the  same  establishments 
indicated  that  black  men  made  a  good  record  as  to  labor 
turnover,  absenteeism,  and  quantity  and  quality  of  work 
done.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  during  the  war 
the  industrial  plants  that  employed  Negro  workers  for 
the  first  time  were  well  pleased.  These  workers  proved 
themselves  adaptable,  teachable,  and  able  to  get  along  in  a 
very  cooperative  way  with  white  fellow-workmen  both 
North  and  South.  Negro  women  entered  the  clothing 


32  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

factories  of   New  York  by  the   hundreds.     These  are 
only  some  of  the  changed  conditions  that  arose. 

The  progress  of  Negro  farmers.  Although  many 
Negroes  migrated  North  during  the  World  War,  yet 
the  large  majority  are  still  in  the  South,  and  since  the 
majority  are  engaged  in  agriculture,  their  farm  opera 
tions  are  of  prime  importance  in  considering  the  changed 
conditions  in  race  relations.  In  1920  over  920,000  more 
farms  were  operated  by  Negroes  than  in  1860,  and  more 
than  one  third  of  them  were  owned  in  whole  or  in  part 
by  Negroes.  In  a  single  decade,  1900-1910,  the  number 
of  Negro  farm  owners  increased  about  17  per  cent. 
About  three  out  of  every  four  Negro  farm  operators  in 
1910  were  tenants  on  rented  land.  The  fourth  operator 
was  an  owner  or  a  part  owner.  Negro  farm  operators 
increased  between  1900  and  1910  about  19.6  per  cent, 
while  the  rate  of  increase  of  Negro  population  was  11.2 
per  cent.  There  was  a  slight  decrease  between  1910  and 
1920  in  the  number  of  owners,  doubtless  due  to  migra 
tion  and  other  changes  during  the  War.  There  was,  how 
ever,  an  increase  of  3.1  per  cent  in  Negro  farm  operators 
for  the  decade.  White  farm  operators  during  the  period 
1900-1910  increased  only  9.5  per  cent  in  comparison 
with  the  increase  of  the  white  population  of  22.3  per 
cent,  and  there  was  also  a  slight  decrease  in  the  number 
of  white  farm  owners.  For  both  races  there  was  a 
marked  increase  of  managing  operators  of  farms.  Ne 
groes  in  1920  owned  a  farm  area  about  the  size  of  New 
England,  omitting  Maine.1  The  average  value  of  Negro 
farms  increased  from  $669  in  1900  to  $1,278  in  1910  or 
about  91  per  cent.2 

1  Stokes,  Anson  Phelps,  Southern  Workman,  March,  1922,  pp. 
114-116. 

2  These  figures  were  furnished  by  Charles  E.  Hall,  U.  S.  Census 
Bureau. 


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SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  33 

Growth  of  business  enterprises.  Next  to  the  num 
ber  of  farms  owned  and  operated,  the  operation  of  busi 
ness  enterprises  is  a  clear  sign  of  economic  progress  and 
prosperity.1  In  1860  Negroes  were  estimated  to  have 
owned  2,100  business  enterprises.  In  1910  it  was  esti 
mated  that  they  operated  45,000  business  enterprises 
and  in  1920  more  than  55,000  enterprises.  A  compara 
tive  enumeration  in  New  York  City  showed  that  in 
1908-09  there  were  less  than  400  Negro  business  enter 
prises  in  the  borough  of  Manhattan,  ten  of  them  being 
corporations.  In  1921,  there  were  probably  more  than 
700  Negro  enterprises  in  this  borough,  including  more 
than  59  corporations.2 

Many  of  these  Negro  enterprises  are,  of  course,  small 
one-man  enterprises,  but  a  few  of  them  are  corporations 
owning  and  controlling  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  prop 
erty.  Life  insurance  companies,  mainly  industrial,  and 
savings  banks  have  been  the  outstanding,  large  business 
developments.  It  is  estimated  that  the  business  of  Negro 
insurance  companies  exceeds  $60,000,000  with  annual 
income  of  more  than  $6,000,000  and  with  disbursements 
of  a  like  amount.  The  largest  of  the  life  insurance  com 
panies  in  1920  reported  more  than  $35,000,000  worth  of 
insurance  in  force,  and  daily  receipts  exceeding  $4,000 
in  1919.  This  is  the  North  Carolina  Mutual  Life  Insur 
ance  Company,  which  was  founded  by  John  Merrick,  a 
barber,  Dr.  A.  M.  Moore,  a  physician,  and  Charles  C. 
Spaulding,  who  was  the  first  business  manager.  The 
company  began  about  twenty-five  years  ago  on  the  in 
dustrial  plan  and  paid  its  first  death  claim  of  $40  by 
making  up  the  amount  from  the  resources  of  its  three 

1  Negro  Year-book,  edited  by  Monroe  N.  Work,  p.  i. 

2  Data  furnished  partly  by  Trotter's  Negro  Blue  Book  Direc 
tory  of  New  York  and  partly  from  investigations  of  the  author. 


34  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

officers.  Its  office  at  that  time  consisted  of  desk  space 
at  two  dollars  a  month  in  a  corner  of  the  doctor's  office.1 

The  second  largest  insurance  company  is  the  Standard 
Life  Insurance  Company.  It  is  less  than  ten  years  old 
and  has  to-day  outstanding  policies  of  about  $20,000,000 
of  insurance.  Its  development  reads  like  a  romance 
and  represents  the  work  largely  of  one  man,  Herman  E. 
Perry.  He  first  canvassed  to  raise  $100,000  which  was 
necessary  in  order  to  deposit  required  bonds  with  the 
Insurance  Commissioner  of  Georgia.  Perry  failed  to 
secure  this  amount  in  his  first  attempt,  covering  a  period 
of  about  two  years,  and  returned  to  the  subscribers  to 
the  stock  of  the  proposed  company  all  the  money  which 
had  been  paid  on  deposit,  less  ten  per  cent  for  expenses, 
agreed  upon  in  the  original  plans.  Perry  started  im 
mediately  upon  his  second  effort  which  took  him  two 
years  more,  and  this  time  he  secured  the  necessary 
$100,000.  He  began  an  old  line  legal  reserve  business  in 
1913.  The  company  is  now  doing  business  in  thirteen 
states  and  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Besides  saving  and  investing  in  insurance  companies, 
Negroes  are  actively  interested  in  banks,  in  building  and 
loan  associations,  grocery  stores,  clothing  stores,  drug 
stores,  shoe  stores,  bakeries,  steam-laundries,  hotels, 
barber  shops,  tailor  shops,  pleasure  parks,  moving  pic 
ture  theaters,  and  many  other  lines  of  small  business. 
There  were  250  or  more  Negro  newspapers  and  periodi 
cals.  A  dozen  of  these  have  a  wide  national  circulation 
from  10,000  to  more  than  75,000. 

In  1920  there  were  listed  76  Negro  banks  with  a  re 
ported  capitalization  exceeding  $2,750,000  and  doing  an 
annual  business  of  about  $35,000,000.  This  is  a  very 

1  Andrews,    Robert    McCants,    John   Merrick,   a   Biographical 
Sketch,  pp.  75-120. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  35 

small  sum  compared  with  even  one  of  the  nation's  great 
banks  and  gives  no  account  of  money  deposited  by 
Negroes  in  banks  organized  by  white  men;  but  these 
small  Negro  institutions  represent  the  strivings  of  the 
race.  They  are  distributed  from  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  to 
Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  Memphis,  Tenn.  In  Virginia 
there  are  fourteen  Negro  banks,  in  Georgia  there  are  nine, 
and  in  North  Carolina  there  are  nine.  None  of  them 
are  national  banks  or  large  metropolitan  banking  institu 
tions.  They  are  small  undertakings.  But  they  represent 
the  accumulated  savings  and  thrift  of  thousands  of 
Negro  depositors  and  stockholders  who  have  not  only 
gathered  their  small  savings  together,  but  who  have  to 
this  extent  expressed  their  confidence  in  the  financial 
leadership  and  management  of  men  of  their  own  race. 
Progress  in  health.  The  progress  of  the  Negro  in 
health  can  barely  be  indicated  from  available  figures  of 
mortality  or  statistics  of  the  defective  classes.  The  reg 
istration  area  for  mortality  before  1900  embraced  10 
states  and  153  cities,  practically  all  of  which  were  out 
side  of  the  territory  where  the  bulk  of  the  Negroes  re 
side.  "During  the  entire  period  1900-1915,"  says  the 
census  report,  "the  great  mass  of  the  Negro  population 
has  been  resident  in  the  non-registration  area.  The  pro 
portion  living  in  the  registration  area  was  13.5  per  cent 
in  1900,  19.7  per  cent  in  1910  and  30.4  per  cent  in  1915." 
The  proportion  of  deaths  of  Negroes  was  about  station 
ary  during  the  first  two  of  these  five-year  periods  and 
showed  slight  increase  during  the  last  period.  An  esti 
mate  based  on  such  incomplete  mortality  statistics  for 
the  Negro  population  as  are  available  indicates  that  the 
aggregate  decrease  of  numbers  by  death  in  the  Negro 
population  between  1900  and  1910  was  about  16  per  cent. 
For  the  native  white  population  in  the  same  period  the 


3*  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

figure  was  9.9  per  cent.  The  annual  average  deaths  per 
1,000  population  for  the  five-year  periods,  1901-1905, 
1906-1910  in  81  cities  having  at  least  ten  per  cent  Negro 
population  show  a  decreasing  death-rate  for  both  races, 
with  a  slightly  larger  decrease  for  the  white  population. 

One  of  the  most  definite  signs  of  progress  in  Negro 
health  and  sanitation  is  the  growing  number  of  hospi 
tals,  trained  nurses,  physicians,  and  surgeons  within  the 
race  itself.  In  many  of  the  city  hospitals  there  is  now 
provision  for  the  care  of  Negro  patients.  In  25  states 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  in  1920,  there  were  reported 
119  hospitals,  nurses'  training-schools,  and  sanitaria 
especially  for  Negroes,  many  of  them  conducted  by 
Negroes.  All  except  about  ten  of  these  are  verj  poorly 
equipped  and  very  inadequate  in  size  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  communities  they  serve.  They  represent,  how 
ever,  a  substantial  advance.  In  1910,  there  were  478 
dentists,  26  of  them  women,  3,409  physicians  and  sur 
geons,  524  of  them  women,  and  2,433  trained  nurses. 
There  is  a  National  Negro  Medical  Association,  hav 
ing  its  own  well-edited  journal,  and  there  are  about 
53  district,  state,  and  local  medical,  dental,  and  pharma 
ceutical  associations  of  Negroes.  There  is  a  National 
Association  of  Colored  Graduate  Nurses  which  meets 
annually  and  a  struggling  "Blue  Circle"  working  along 
the  lines  similar  to  the  Red  Cross.  Many  of  the  pro 
fessional  men  and  women  have  received  their  training 
in  missionary  colleges  and  in  the  best  institutions  for 
professional  study  in  the  land  and  are  highly  appreciated 
by  white  fellow-members  of  their  professions. 

Progress  in  morals.  In  the  matter  of  Negro  crime 
there  are  several  considerations  in  dealing  with  figures 
of  arrests,  commitments  to  prison,  or  other  evidences  of 
crime.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Negro  suffers 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  37 

a  large  amount  of  injustice  in  the  courts  and  that  they 
suffer  especially  in  those  localities  where  the  fee  system 
is  still  used.  Officers  who  make  the  arrests,  the  petty 
magistrates,  and  other  officials  get  a  portion  of  fines  as 
sessed.  The  temptation  to  make  unwarranted  arrests 
and  unjustified  convictions  is  obvious. 

Illiteracy  and  poverty,  greater  among  Negroes  than 
among  whites,  and  previous  condition  of  servitude,  with 
its  degradation,  are  undoubtedly  bearing  fruit  in  delin 
quency  and  crime. 

Public  opinion  also  has  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
Negro  crime.  The  ordinary  Negro  has  it  continually 
dinned  into  his  ears  that  he  is  a  nobody,  that  he  is 
inferior  and  criminal.  This  breaks  down  group  morale, 
removes  self-respect.  If  a  man  is  made  to  believe  that 
he  is  a  citizen  like  anybody  else,  will  be  held  account 
able  for  what  he  does  like  anybody  else,  and  is  expected 
to  stand  up  to  the  standards  of  a  man,  it  goes  a  long 
way  in  deterring  him  from  delinquent  conduct. 

Furthermore,  crime  is  partly  a  matter  of  delinquent 
communities  which  have  neglected  to  provide  care  and 
training  for  their  children  and  young  people.  This  is 
true  of  all  delinquent  classes.  Crime  is  a  community 
disease,  and  the  individual  is  affected  by  contagion  of 
vice  and  neglect.  The  Negroes,  burdened  with  poverty, 
are  crowded  into  segregated  districts  of  our  cities.  The 
respectable  persons  and  families  among  them  have  diffi 
culty  in  protecting  themselves  from  the  vicious  and 
criminal,  both  those  of  their  own  race  and  those  of  the 
white  race,  who  prey  upon  the  residents  of  such  districts, 
especially  upon  the  children  and  youths. 

We  may  take  the  census  figures  of  crime  with  allow 
ances  because  of  variations  in  collecting  them.  That  the 
crime-rates  of  Negroes  in  the  North  exceed  those  in  the 


38  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

South,  is  partly  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  large 
majority  of  the  Negroes  in  the  North  are  migrants,  that 
a  larger  proportion  are  above  ten  years  of  age,  and  that 
more  than  three  fourths  of  them  live  in  the  larger  cities 
where  commitments  to  prison  for  all  classes  are  greater 
in  number  than  in  rural  districts.  Migrants  are  under 
going  readjustments  to  new  conditions  and  surroundings. 

According  to  the  census  of  1910,  the  percentage  of 
Negroes  receiving  sentences  of  one  year  or  more  was 
33.8  per  cent  of  all  Negroes  sentenced  to  prison  in  that 
year,  while  the  whites  receiving  such  sentences  was  10.2 
per  cent  of  all  whites  sentenced ;  that  is,  the  proportion 
of  Negroes  receiving  such  sentences  was  three  times  as 
large  as  the  proportion  of  whites.  This  is  partly  due  to 
heavier  sentences  being  imposed  upon  Negroes  for  of 
fenses  similar  to  those  of  the  white  race,  to  different 
practises  of  states  in  imposing  heavier  or  lighter  fines 
for  crimes  as  distinguished  from  misdemeanors,  and  to 
a  larger  number  of  white  prison  sentences  for  lighter 
offenses,  with  shorter  terms,  such  as  drunkenness  and 
disorderly  conduct.  It  may  be  of  importance  in  this 
connection  to  compare  prison  sentences  of  Negroes  for 
rape  with  those  of  other  national  elements  of  our  popu 
lation.  Sentences  for  rape  per  100,000  of  the  population 
in  the  United  States  in  1904  were:  Colored  1.8,  Italians 
5.3,  Mexicans  4.8,  Austrians  3.2,  Hungarians  2,  French 
1.9,  Russians  i.g.1  If  all  the  Negroes  who  are  charged 
with  rape  and  lynched  were  added  to  these  figures,  the 
Negro  rate  would  probably  still  be  less  than  that  of  all 
the  nationalities  except  the  French  and  the  Russians. 

In  commenting  on  its  own  figures  of  crime,  the  census 
report  says  that  the  figures — 

1  Negro  Year  Book,  1918-1919,  pp.  37J-72. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  39 

"will  probably  be  generally  accepted  as  indicating  that 
there  is  more  criminality  and  lawbreaking  among 
Negroes  than  among  whites.  While  that  conclusion  is 
probably  justified  by  the  figures,  it  is  a  question  whether 
the  difference  shown  by  the  ratios  may  not  be  to  some 
extent  the  result  of  discrimination  in  the  treatment  of 
white  and  Negro  offenders  on  the  part  of  the  commun 
ity  and  the  courts  as  well  as  the  framing  of  some  laws, 
such  as  those  making  non-payment  of  debts  a  crime  in 
stead  of  a  civil  liability. 

"An  offense  committed  by  a  Negro  is  perhaps  more 
likely  to  be  punished  than  the  same  offense  committed 
by  a  white  man,  especially  if  the  victim  of  the  offense 
committed  by  the  Negro  is  white,  while  in  the  other  case 
the  victim  is  Negro.  It  is  probable  that,  as  compared 
with  the  white  man,  the  Negro  when  brought  to  trial 
on  a  criminal  charge  is  in  fewer  instances  able  to  em 
ploy  expert  counsel  to  defend  his  case  and  assist  him  in 
taking  advantage  of  any  technicality  in  the  law  which 
may  be  in  his  favor. 

"Moreover,  in  the  case  of  those  offenses  for  which 
the  penalty  may  be  a  fine  or  imprisonment  as  the  alterna 
tive  if  the  fine  is  not  paid,  it  is  probable  that  the  Negro 
is  more  often  unable  to  pay  the  fine  than  the  white  man 
and  is  therefore  more  likely  to  be  sent  to  jail ;  but,  of 
course,  this  consideration  has  little  weight  in  connection 
with  more  serious  offenses  which  are  seldom  penalized 
by  fines  only/' 

When  the  whole  range  of  crime  is  taken  into  view,  it 
is  a  striking  fact  that  a  Negro  has  never  been  accused 
of  treason  to  his  country,  has  never  attempted  to  assas 
sinate  a  president  or  other  high  public  official,  or  has 
ever  organized  any  kind  of  revolt  against  the  Union, 
although  the  race  has  suffered  from  oppression  during 
many  generations. 

The  testimony  of  police  and  court  authorities  in  New 
York,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  other  cities  of  the  North 


40  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

was  that  crime  had  decreased  among  Negroes  during 
the  prosperity  of  war  wages  and  during  the  first  months 
following  the  Armistice.  The  same  is  probably  true 
elsewhere  and  indicates  the  influence  of  the  Negro's  pov 
erty  upon  his  crime  and  that  increase  in  home  ownership 
and  better  wages  will  decrease  crime.  Here  again  is  the 
opportunity  for  the  message  of  Him  who  sought  to  help 
the  delinquent  and  neglected. 

There  seems  to  have  been  in  the  last  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  a  considerable  increase  in  juvenile  delin 
quency  among  Negroes.  Whether  or  not  this  is  due 
to  the  increased  efficiency  in  gathering  data  and  the 
handling  of  juvenile  Negro  delinquents  or  whether  it  is 
really  an  increase  in  the  delinquency  is  hard  to  say.  If 
it  is  the  latter,  it  is  partly  explainable  by  the  growing 
readjustments  in  Negro  family  life.  It  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  present  generation  of  Negro  children 
is  the  first  that  has  had  family  control  by  parents  born 
in  freedom.  The  aftermath  of  slavery  and  all  the  ttfr- 
moil  of  transition  from  serfdom  to  freedom  and  from 
country  life  to  city  life  is  still  heavy  upon  the  Negro 
family,  childhood,  and  youth.  Here  lies  the  great  hope 
and  the  great  need  for  religious  education  and  commun 
ity  service  as  a  challenge  to  the  Church — to  care  for 
these  lambs  of  the  fold. 

The  figures  for  defectives,  showing  the  number  and 
percentage  of  the  insane,  feeble-minded,  and  blind,  are 
of  very  little  value  because  the  bulk  of  the  Negro  popu 
lation  is  in  the  South  where  there  is  very  little  provision 
made  for  and  there  are  few  authentic  records  of  these 
defective  classes  of  Negroes. 

Significant  evidence  of  moral  progress  of  Negroes 
may  be  cited  from  the  experience  with  the  500,000  or 
more  Negroes  who  migrated  from  the  South  to  the 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  41 

North  during  the  World  War  and  the  months  since  the 
Armistice.  They  have  been  often  in  great  congested 
crowds  in  many  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  North;  they 
have  been  separated  from  their  old  surroundings, 
friends,  and  home  ties  and  have  settled  among  a  strange 
people  in  a  strange  land.  While  there  are  no  figures 
available,  and  while  newspaper  headlines  about  Negro 
crime  may  create  the  other  impression,  the  statements 
made  by  social  workers,  police  officers,  and  citizens  will 
bear  ample  testimony  to  their  orderliness,  their  suscepti 
bility  to  guidance,  their  respectful  submission  to  author 
ity,  and  their  eagerness  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  order 
and  routine  of  industry  and  life  of  the  communities  into 
which  they  come.  Their  desires  and  efforts  to  "better 
their  condition,  take  "hold  of  and  use  the  greater  oppor 
tunities  for  education,  the  facilities  for  home  life,  and 
the  community  opportunities  in  the  freer  atmosphere  of 
the  Northern  clime  are  eloquent  tributes  to  their  adaptive 
capacity  and  their  power  of  achievement  and  a  powerful 
appeal  to  the  Christian  forces  of  these  communities  to 
reach  out  helping  hands  to  them. 

Development  of  homes.  Another  evidence  of  Negro 
progress  may  be  seen  by  looking  at  the  thousands  of 
Negro  homes. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  homes  of  white 
people.  Many  a  Sunday  photographic  supplement  of 
white  newspapers  has  pictured  the  homes,  large  and 
small,  palatial  and  modest,  of  the  white  American.  The 
advantages,  sanctity,  culture,  and  problems  of  white 
homes  have  been  the  subject  of  tongue  and  pen  of  able 
orators  and  writers.  The  homes  of  Negro  people,  how 
ever,  have  had  songs  from  few  poets  and  pictures  from 
few  pens.  A  venture  in  description  of  its  development, 
its  problems,  sanctity,  and  culture  is  a  tempting  theme 


42  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

for  an  essay,  difficult  of  performance  and  is  made  not 
without  a  feeling  of  its  inadequacy. 

Such  a  portrayal  of  Negro  homes  necessarily  begins 
with  the  ante-bellum  plantation  cabin.  During  slavery 
there  were  three  general  classes  of  Negroes  whose  home 
life  varied : x  ( i )  the  field  hands  who  comprised  the  ma 
jority;  (2)  the  domestic  and  personal  servants,  who 
were  in  daily  contact  with  the  master  and  his  family, 
together  with  a  few  slave  artisans  both  on  the  plantation 
and  in  the  towns  and  cities;  (3)  the  free  Negroes,  who 
were  considerable  in  numbers  in  localities  like  New 
Orleans,  Charleston,  Richmond,  Nashville  and  Louis 
ville,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York.  The  "field  hands" 
lived  in  one-room  cabins  usually  placed  together  in 
"slave  quarters"  at  a  distance  from  "the  big  house." 
Problems  of  sanitation  and  health  had  the  supervision 
of  overseer  or  master.  The  servant  class  lived  in  or 
near  "the  big  house,"  so  as  to  be  within  call  day  or 
night.  The  family  ties  of  all  slaves  were  made  and 
broken  without  legal  or  moral  barrier  above  the  will 
of  the  owner.  Slave  parents  had  no  legal  rights  over 
their  children,  and  children  followed  the  status  of  their 
mothers.  On  plantations  having  a  number  of  slaves, 
while  the  mothers  worked,  the  children  too  small  to  work 
were  usually  kept  by  some  slave  woman  too  old  to  be 
of  service  in  the  field.  Such  nurture  and  training  as 
children  received  often  came  from  others  than  their 
parents.2 

Free  Negroes  had  legal  sanction  for  marriage,  had 
title  to  their  children,  except  in  cases  of  a  free  father 
and  slave  mother.  They  set  up  homes  of  their  own 

1  For  graphic  description  see  Coppin,  Levi,  J.,  Unwritten  His 
tory  (autobiography),  pp.  17-94. 

2  Haynes,  Elizabeth  Ross,  Unsung  Heroes,  pp.  11-21. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  43 

patterned  after  the  best  homes  of  neighboring  whites. 
In  some  cases  they  owned  slaves.  Many  of  these  homes 
in  their  housing,  furniture,  culture,  and  purity  ranked 
among  the  best  in  the  community.  In  North  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  upon  a  terrace,  stands  an  imposing  eight-room 
brick  residence,  surrounded  by  a  lawn  and  trees,  which 
was  built  and  occupied  by  a  free  man  of  color  and  his 
family  in  the  late  fifties.  This  instance  can  be  matched 
in  a  number  of  other  places.  When  emancipation  came 
it  was  estimated  that  not  less  than  12,000  Negro  families 
owned  their  homes. 

From  the  free  families,  North  and  South,  from  the 
favored  domestic  and  personal  servants,  and  from  the 
slave  mechanics  and  town  and  city  workers  arose  Negro 
professional  and  business  classes  during  the  first  decades 
of  freedom.  A  number  of  farmers  owned  their  land; 
other  thrifty  ones  began  to  buy.  As  soon  as  freedom 
came  those  who  had  been  united  as  slaves  sought  legal 
and  ecclesiastical  sanction  in  marriage  and  reestablished 
their  family  hearths  upon  the  ashes  of  the  slave  cabin. 
The  families  which  had  been  previously  blessed  by  legal 
protection  renewed  their  security.  Out  of  these  vicis 
situdes  the  Negro  home  has  grown  in  stability,  in  purity, 
in  culture,  and  in  its  power  to  mold  a  potential  people. 
Generalizations  about  ten  million  people  so  widely  dis 
tributed  over  the  nation  are  risky  writing.  Classified 
types  are  only  suggestive  and  only  define  the  lines  within 
which  the  variations  range.  The  following  descriptions 
of  Negro  homes,  therefore,  may  be  viewed  with  such 
allowances  in  mind. 

The  country  Negro  home  is  of  three  types.  First, 
there  is  the  cabin  of  the  tenant,  usually  a  one-room, 
squatty  structure  with  open  fireplace,  sometimes  with  a 
"lean-to"  kitchen. 


44  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Second,  there  is  the  two-room  cabin,  usually  set  on 
either  side  of  a  wide  porch  like  the  two  rooms  of  a 
little  log  schoolhouse  set  on  either  side  of  an  open  pas 
sageway.  The  house  is  often  built  of  lumber  instead  of 
logs  and  is  unpainted.  Window  openings  are  covered 
with  wooden  shutters.  The  cooking  is  frequently  done 
in  the  fireplace  or  in  an  adjoining  shed.  There  are  no 
modern  conveniences  such  as  running  water  and  indoor 
toilet.  The  rooms  are  bare  for  the  most  part.  Often 
pictures  cut  from  newspapers  or  magazines  are  posted 
upon  the  wall,  a  cheap  mirror  may  hang  over  the  fire 
place,  and  a  Bible  of  some  kind  usually  lies  upon  a  shelf 
overhanging  the  fireplace  or  upon  a  plain  table.  Beds, 
white  and  fat  with  straw  and  "feather-ticks,"  and  a  few 
plain,  "split-bottom"  chairs,  including  one  or  two  rock 
ing  chairs,  make  up  the  remainder  of  the  furniture. 

Third,  the  more  prosperous  Negro  farmer  usually 
builds  a  modern  house  with  four  or  more  rooms  and 
some  of  the  present-day  conveniences.  Paint  on  the  out 
side,  paper  on  the  walls  within,  rugs  and  pictures,  a  few 
books,  and  usually  a  "race  newspaper"  show  how  far 
the  conditions  have  improved.  In  nearly  all  these  homes 
there  is  usually  some  kind  of  musical  instrument — an 
accordion,  a  "fiddle,"  an  organ,  or  sometimes  a  piano. 

In  all  three  types,  mother  and  father  form  the  center 
of  the  life,  and  some  form  of  religious  observance  is  the 
rule.  One  of  the  striking  things  about  the  country  Negro 
home  is  that  everybody  works.  The  typical  family  is 
always  in  a  struggle  with  poverty  or  for  economic  se 
curity.  During  the  "cropping  season,"  before  the  sun 
rises  all  hands  are  in  the  field,  the  children  being  kept 
from  school — if  there  is  a  school.  Long  after  the  sun 
has  set,  they  labor  on. 

The  Negro  in  the  town  and  city  has  to  face  a  situa- 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  45 

tion  somewhat  different.  Here  there  are  two  main  types 
of  home.  First,  there  is-  the  tenement,  either  a  single 
building  of  two  or  three  rooms  arranged  in  a  line, — the 
gun-barrel  tenement, — grouped  with  others,  sometimes 
facing  a  front  street,  side  street,  or  an  alley ;  or  a  com 
bination  building  of  a  number  of  crowded  apartments 
— the  ark  type  of  tenement.  Second,  the  substantial 
dwelling,  usually  comprising  four  to  eight  rooms,  some 
times  more,  which  has  ample  provision  for  health  and 
privacy.  If  in  a  city  that  provides  sanitary  connections 
in  Negro  neighborhoods,  such  houses  usually  have  run 
ning  water,  baths,  and  inside  toilets.  In  Southern  cities 
a  yard,  with  space  on  front  and  sides,  often  containing 
shrubbery  and  a  garden,  gives  a  homelike  appearance  to 
the  place.  The  public  facilities  of  Negro  neighborhoods, 
such  as  well-paved,  lighted,  and  cleaned  streets,  prop 
erly  collected  garbage,  sewage  connections,  and  police 
and  fire  protection,  are,  as  a  rule,  more  striking  by  their 
absence  than  by  their  presence.  The  red  light  districts 
of  whites,  in  cities  that  have  them,  are  often  allowed  to 
locate  within  or  near  the  Negro  neighborhood,  and  the 
heads  of  the  Negro  homes  cannot  prevent  their  prox 
imity. 

The  Negro  family  in  the  city  has  a  no  less  intense 
struggle  to  make  both  ends  meet  than  the  family  in  the 
country.  Migrating  by  the  thousands  during  the  past 
thirty  years,  from  the  small  towns  and  rural  districts, 
the  large  majority  of  Negroes  are  able  to  fill  only  un 
skilled  and  domestic  service  jobs,  which  are  the  lowest 
paid  occupations.  They  are  making  the  great  adjust 
ments  both  from  serf  labor  to  wage  freedom  and  from 
rural  work  to  city  labor.  Their  chances  for  training 
in  semiskilled  and  skilled  occupations  are  restricted. 
In  occupations  where  they  are  admitted,  except  under 


46          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

conditions  af  labor  shortage  such  as  happened  during 
the  War,  they  often  retain  their  places  because  they 
can  be  paid  less  than  white  workers  for  the  same  work 
and,  when  understood,  are  more  easily  managed. 
Negro  men,  therefore,  find  themselves  heavily  handi 
capped  in  getting  support  for  their  families.  They  die 
out  more  rapidly  than  white  men  in  the  struggle.  Negro 
women,  especially  mothers,  go  out  to  work  to  help  keep 
the  wolf  from  the  door,  and  Negro  children,  girls  and 
boys,  must  usually  cut  short  their  growth  and  education 
to  share  the  breadwinning  of  the  family. 

One  of  the  startling  facts  of  the  struggle  for  home 
life  is  that  the  Negro's  standard  of  living  is  rising 
faster  than  the  returns  from  his  occupational  efficiency 
and  opportunity.  The  standard  of  the  houses  required 
in  the  cities,  the  standard  of  food  and  clothing,  wants 
in  household  furnishings  and  in  other  things  are  rising 
faster  than  the  Negro's  wage  scale.  War  wages  helped 
to  even  up  the  score  and  enabled  many  more  Negro 
married  women  to  stay  at  home  and  care  for  their 
own  families.  Now  that  the  high  wage  period  is  past, 
however,  the  battle  of  the  Negro  home  is  renewed 
against  low  wages,  absentee  wage-earning  mothers,  the 
lure  of  wealth  to  its  girls,  and  the  helpless  position  in 
which  its  men  often  find  themselves  when  they  seek 
opportunities  for  better  training,  for  better  jobs,  and 
chances  to  get  and  hold  jobs  with  pay  adequate  to  sup 
port  their  families. 

Advance  in  community  life.  In  thinking  of  homos 
one  naturally  looks  out  into  the  community.  Evidences 
of  Negro  progress  in  the  neighborhoods  where  they 
live,  in  city,  town,  and  country,  may  be  noted  by  any 
one  who  will  take  the  time  and  the  pains  to  form  ac 
curate  and  unbiased  judgment.  Development  of  Negro 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  47 

community  life,  the  participation  in  the  many  organi 
zations  and  agencies  for  community  and  national  ad 
vancement,  and  the  development  of  a  social  conscious 
ness  and  responsibility  are  no  less  marks  of  the  prog 
ress  of  the  Negro  in  the  past  sixty  years  than  the  ma 
terial  and  statistical  evidence  which  has  just  been  re 
viewed. 

In  community  life  and  citizenship,  Negroes  have 
made  four  steps  in  progress.  They  have  learned  to 
develop  effective  organizations  of  their  own.  They 
have  grown  rapidly  in  community  consciousness  and 
consciousness  of  social  responsibility.  They  have  come 
to  a  conviction  of  their  unity  with  other  parts  of  the 
community.  They  are  asking,  not  that  they  be  segre 
gated  in  community  organization,  but  that  where  their 
interests  are  affected,  they  be  represented  at  the  common 
council  table  by  leaders  of  their  own.  They  seek  the 
opportunity  to  contribute  their  share  to  the  common  cause 
and  to  bear  their  part  of  the  common  responsibility.  They 
have  shown  a  readiness  to  cooperate  and  contribute 
which  leaves  no  doubt  about  their  attitude  and  desires 
in  this  matter,  and  white  and  Negro  churchmen  are  set 
ting  the  examples  of  new  ways  in  their  cooperative 
dealings. 

Progress  in  education.  While  there  can  be  no  abso 
lute  measure  of  the  increase  in  intelligence  of  a  people, 
fair  indications,  without  doubt,  are  furnished  by  the 
facts  about  progress  in  provision  for  education  and  by 
evidences  of  the  results  among  the  people. 

Gradual  gains  have  been  made  in  developing  common 
schools  for  the  Negro  in  the  South.  The  initiative  for 
this  has  been  very  largely  due  to  church  and  other  pri 
vate  funds.  The  pioneer  church  missionary  teachers 
laid  the  foundations.  Probably  the  greatest  step  for- 


48  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ward  has  been  the  gradual  change  in  the  attitude  of 
Southern  white  people  toward  Negro  education.  In 
1920  it  was  reported  that  $13,000,000  was  appropriated 
from  public  funds  for  Negro  schools  in  Southern  states.1 

The  attitude  of  county  and  state  officers  in  several 
states  controlling  the  distribution  of  school  funds  has 
been  changing  toward  a  larger  and  more  equitable  ap 
portionment  of  public  funds.  This  change  of  sentiment 
has  been  fostered  by  the  Jeanes  and  Slater  Funds,  and 
by  the  state  supervisors  of  Negro  rural  schools  sup 
ported  by  the  General  Education  Board  and  operating 
under  state  boards  of  education.2  There  is  still,  how 
ever,  a  long  way  to  go.  One  leading  Negro  educator 
in  a  Southern  state  said:  "The  thing  hardest  for  me  to 
understand  about  some  of  my  white  friends,  men  whom 
I  know  intimately  to  be  men  who  are  square  and  liberal 
in  all  my  dealings  with  them,  is  their  willingness  to  go 
into  a  meeting  and  agree  to  take  public  school  funds 
rightfully  belonging  to  Negroes  and  appropriate  them 
for  schools  for  white  children.  How  those  men  can 
square  their  action  with  their  conscience  is  more  than 
I  can  square  with  my  belief  in  their  integrity." 

That  there  will  continue  to  be  improvement  is  shown 
by  the  action  of  the  state  of  North  Carolina  in  making 
liberal  appropriations  for  Negro  education  from  1919 
to  1922  of  between  one  and  two  millions  of  dollars  for 
high  school,  normal  school,  vocational,  and  agricultural 
education.  It  was  a  broad,  liberal-minded,  statesman 
like  step.  The  state  of  Oklahoma  has  recently  restored 
about  a  million  dollars  of  public  funds  to  education 

1  Stokes,  Anson  Phelps,  Southern  Workman,  March,  1922,  pp. 
114-116. 

2  Annual  Report  of  the  General  Education  Board,  pp.  84-86. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  49 

of  Negroes  of  the  state.  The  provisions  for  secondary 
and  higher  educational  institutions  are  probably  in 
creasing  more  slowly  than  those  for  the  elementary 
schools.  The  higher  institutions  have  to  furnish  the 
teachers,  principals,  supervisors,  and  superintendents  for 
the  elementary  schools.  They  have  the  responsibility  also 
of  giving  the  academic  training  to  all  the  other  profes 
sional  classes.  The  ministers,  doctors,  teachers,  law 
yers,  writers,  editors,  and  artists  among  the  ten  millions 
of  Negroes  in  the  United  States  should  have  the  most 
thorough,  advanced  training. 

Special  mention  may  be  made  of  the  need  of  provision 
for  training  ministers.  The  majority  of  those  now  serv 
ing  nearly  40,000  Negro  churches  have  had  very  limited 
training.  Besides,  the  ranks  must  be  kept  closed  as  many 
become  superannuated,  leave  the  profession,  or  pass 
away.  A  recent  estimate  showed  an  annual  need  of 
1,200  men  with  only  about  100  being  prepared  in  existing 
religious-training  institutions. 

In  1920  a  most  careful  accounting  showed  probably 
not  more  than  one  hundred  real  public  high  schools  for 
Negroes  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  sixteen  Southern 
states.  There  were  none  in  the  rural  districts,  except 
ing  probably  a  few  county  training-schools  that  may  be 
so  rated. 

In  1917-18,  according  to  the  state  superintendents, 
there  were  in  the  sixteen  Southern  states  and  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  3,076,482  Negro  children  of  school 
age.  Of  those,  2,039,706  or  66  per  cent  were  enrolled  in 
public  schools.  There  were  36,585  Negro  public  school 
teachers  and  64  public  high  schools.  Negroes  who  could 
not  read  and  write  in  1860  were  estimated  at  more  than 
90  per  cent.  In  1920  they  were  estimated  at  less  than 


5»  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

25  per  cent.  There  were  two  normal  schools  and  col 
leges  for  Negroes,  probably  no  higher  than  secondary 
grade,  in  1860;  in  1920  there  were  more  than  500  insti 
tutions  of  secondary,  normal,  and  college  grades. 

The  percentages  of  the  Negro  children  in  the  schools 
in  comparison  with  all  those  of  school  age  range  from 
88  per  cent  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  83  per  cent  in 
Oklahoma,  75.3  per  cent  in  North  Carolina,  53  per  cent 
in  Florida  to  a  little  over  60  per  cent  in  Alabama,  Mary 
land,  and  South  Carolina,  43.6  per  cent  in  Louisiana. 
The  inadequate  provision  for  Negro  schools  from  public 
funds  is  illustrated  by  the  meager  salaries  paid.  Be 
tween  1910  and  1915  for  15  states  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  the  per  capita  salary  for  each  white  child  was 
$10.32,  and  $2.89  for  each  Negro  child.1 

In  the  South,  where  practically  all  the  schools  for 
Negroes  are  located,  about  18  per  cent  of  the  total  ex 
penditure  for  education  in  1910  was  for  Negroes,  al 
though  they  made  up  about  30  per  cent  of  the  popula 
tion.  There  has  doubtless  been  considerable  improve 
ment  during  the  twelve  succeeding  years,  but  figures  are 
not  available.  The  result  is  that  a  very  large  propor 
tion  of  Negro  children  are  not  in  school  in  spite  of  the 
eagerness  and  willingness  of  their  parents.  More  than 
30  per  cent  of  the  Negro  children  six  to  twenty  years 
of  age  in  the  South  and  more  than  40  per  cent  in  the 
North  in  1910  were  not  in  school,  while  more  than  35  per 
cent  of  the  white  children  in  the  South  were  not  in 
school.  The  disparity  between  Negro  children  not  in 

1  Figures  given  are  taken  from  the  Negro  Year  Book,  edited 
by  lylonroe  N.  Work;  from  the  Report  on  Negro  Education  by 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  edited  by  Dr.  T.  J.  Jones ;  from 
Census  Report,  Negro  Population  in  the  United  States  1790-1915; 
and  from  the  Negro  section  of  the  World  Survey,  American 
Volume,  Interchurch  World  Movement,  prepared  by  the  author. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  51 

school  and  white  children  not  in  school  was  greatest  in 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisi 
ana,  and  Florida. 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  majority  of  the  people  must 
depend  upon  public  funds  for  their  common  school  edu 
cation,  consequently  a  larger  proportion  of  funds  should 
come  from  the  public  treasury  than  from  private  sources. 
The  productive  private  funds  for  institutional  education 
of  white  people  in  the  United  States  were  estimated  in 
1915  as  more  than  fifty-three  times  as  large  as  similar 
funds  for  Negro  education,  although  the  white  popula 
tion  is  less  than  ten  times  as  large. 

This  situation  is  growing  better,  however.  There  are 
818  counties  of  the  South  where  Negroes  made  up  one 
eighth  or  more  of  the  total  population  in  1910.  In  1921, 
there  were  272  county  supervising  teachers  paid  partly 
by  the  counties  and  partly  through  the  Jeanes  Fund  in 
269  of  these  counties  in  13  states.  These  "traveling 
teachers/'  supervised  by  the  county  superintendents  and 
the  state  supervisor  of  Negro  rural  schools,  help  rural 
teachers,  add  to  the  teaching  of  the  elementary  branches 
in  rural  schools,  encourage  home  industries,  give  sim 
ple  lessons  in  cleanliness  and  sanitation,  promote  im 
provement  of  schoolhouses  and  grounds,  and  organize 
clubs  for  school  and  neighborhood  improvement.  The 
supervisors  that  year  visited  regularly  8,976  country 
schools  for  Negroes.  The  amount  of  money  paid 
through  the  Jeanes  Fund  for  salaries  was  $94,287,  and 
from  the  public  funds,  $119,746.  These  workers  raised 
$394,737  for  school  improvements  largely  from  local 
Negro  citizens,  although  there  is  no  means  of  knowing 
exactly  how  much  came  from  contributions  of  local 
Negro  patrons. 

The  Rosenwald  School  Building  Fund  given  by  Julius 


52  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Rosenwald,  a  Hebrew  merchant  of  Chicago,  provides 
money  for  erecting  good  school  buildings  in  rural  com 
munities.  Up  to  the  end  of  1921  there  had  been  erected 
1,005  °f  these  school  buildings  at  a  total  cost  of 
$3,179,803.  Of  this  amount,  Negro  patrons  contributed 
more  than  one  fourth,  the  Rosenwald  aid  nearly  one  fifth, 
and  the  remainder  came  mainly  from  public  funds.1  The 
General  Education  Board  had  appropriated  up  to  July, 
1921,  for  endowment  and  operation  of  Negro  schools  of 
all  types,  $2,291 ,737.50.* 

There  is  a  crying  need  for  adequate  secondary  and 
normal  schools  in  more  than  700  counties  and  cities  of 
the  South  to  provide  teachers  for  the  elementary  schools. 
The  great  need  for  institutions  of  higher  learning  is  in 
dicated  in  that  the  most  liberal  estimates 3  for  higher 
institutions  for  Negro  American  youth  show  that  there 
are  not  more  than  two  institutions  with  the  equipment, 
endowment,  students,  and  teaching  force  required  by 
the  recent  standard  for  an  "efficient"  college  set  by  the 
Association  of  American  colleges.  Not  more  than  thirty- 
six  institutions  can  be  reckoned  as  either  first,  second,  or 
third  grade  in  the  second  rank  of  colleges.  Only  two  in 
stitutions  offer  courses  in  medicine,  pharmacy,  and  den 
tistry  sufficient  to  be  rated  by  the  Association  of  Medical 
Schools.  In  this  connection  there  is  no  more  heroic  and 
unselfish  story  of  the  Christian  Church  written  than  that 
of  the  relation  of  the  missionary  agencies  to  the  begin 
ning  and  development  of  Negro  education.  The  very 
foundations  of  Negro  education,  both  public  and  private, 
were  laid  and  supported  by  the  Home  Mission  Societies 
with  their  money,  their  teachers,  their  vision  and  en- 

1  Almanac  and  Year  Book,  Chicago  Daily  Neivs,  p.  750. 

2  Annual  Report,  1919-20,  pp.  78-88. 

3  See  World  Survey,  Interchurch  World  Movement,  American 
Volume,  pp.  95-98. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  53 

thusiasm,  in  the  days  before  there  was  any  sentiment  for 
education  of  the  Negro  or  any  belief  in  his  general  ca 
pacity  for  achieving  that  education. 

A  conference  of  white  and  Negro  educators  having  to 
do  with  the  operation  of  the  church  boards  of  education 
of  Negro  denominations  and  with  the  missionary  socie 
ties  fostering  educational  work  among  Negroes  set  forth  in 
1920  the  following  as  their  judgment  of  the  necessary 
minimum  to  be  developed  immediately  from  existing  in 
stitutions:  "(T)  three  'University  Centers'  with  well- 
equipped  medical,  religious,  and  graduate  schools;  (2) 
eleven  institutions  of  standard  college  grade;  (3)  twenty- 
one  institutions  of  junior  college  grade,"  and  at  least  three 
hundred  four-year  high  and  secondary  schools  with  ade 
quate  academic  and  vocational  courses.  ...  At  least  two 
hundred  of  these  should  be  located  in  rural  districts.  In 
many  institutions  supported  by  missionary  funds  there  is 
joint  white  and  Negro  management  and  joint  support.  If 
one  ever  doubts  that  the  idealism  and  the  Christian  en 
thusiasm  of  America  can  bridge  the  color  line,  he  has  only 
to  read  the  story  of  the  development  of  Negro  education, 
beginning  with  the  pioneer  teachers  from  the  North  who 
went  among  the  freedmen  and  lived  and  taught  all  that 
learning  and  character  had  to  offer. 

Probably  the  first  man  of  color  to  graduate  from  a  col 
lege  in  the  United  States  was  Lemuel  Haynes,  who  was  a 
soldier  throughout  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  after 
ward  graduated  from  Yale  and  became  a  Congregational 
minister.  He  served  white  churches  at  Torrington, 
Conn.,  and  Manchester,  N.  H.,  was  a  pioneer  in  home 
missions,  and  won  international  recognition  for  his  ser 
mon  against  "Universalism."  John  Brown  Russworm 
received  a  degree  from  Bowdoin  College  in  1826.  Theo 
dore  S.  Wright  graduated  from  Princeton  Theological 


54  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Seminary,  and  Edward  Jones,  from  Amherst  College  the 
same  year.  The  total  number  of  Negro  college  graduates 
is  now  estimated  to  be  more  than  7,000,  showing  conclu 
sively  the  capacity  of  these  people.  Additional  educa 
tional  progress  of  the  Negro  is  also  indicated  by  achieve 
ments  in  literature,  music,  and  art.1 

Advance  in  inventions  and  scientific  discovery.  In 
ventions  and  a  few  scientific  discoveries  are  clear  evi 
dences  of  the  progressive  use  Negroes  are  making  of  their 
educational  opportunities. 

Among  the  foremost  things  that  have  promoted  the 
progress  of  America  and  the  world  are  inventions,  the 
product  of  thought  and  patient  experiment.  The  cotton 
gin,  the  steam-boat,  machinery  for  the  cheap  manufacture 
of  garments  and  of  shoes,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone, 
electric  light,  and  numerous  electrical  appliances  are  sam 
ples  of  the  thousands  of  inventions  which  have  made  our 
lives  so  safe,  healthful,  and  comfortable.  In  this  field,  the 
Negro  has  made  notable  achievements  which  can  be  con 
clusively  proven,  to  say  nothing  of  hundreds  of  cases 
claimed  that  cannot  be  conclusively  determined.  Besides, 
there  have  been  many  inventions  by  Negroes  that,  like 
Benjamin  Banneker's  famous  clock  in  the  i8th  century, 
were  never  patented.  The  United  States  Patent  Office 
keeps  a  record  of  the  nationality  of  inventors,  but  not  of 
their  race.  In  recent  years,  however,  that  office  through 
the  initiative  of  Mr.  Henry  E.  Baker,2  a  Negro  official 
there  for  forty-five  years,  has  made  a  commendable  effort 
to  ascertain  the  patents  secured  by  Negroes.  About  800 

1  See  Hammond,  L.  H.,  In  the  Vanguard  of  a  Race. 

2  See  "The  Colored  Inventor,  a  Record  of  Fifty  Years,"  by 
Henry  E.  Baker,  pamphlet,  privately  printed.     By  the  same  au 
thor,  "The  Negro  in  the  Field  of  Invention,"  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  21-36,  Jan.,  1917. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  55 

patents  have  been  definitely  verified  as  issued  to  Negro 
patentees  since  the  first  two  patents  of  corn  harvesters 
granted  to  Henry  Blair,  a  Negro,  in  1834  and  1836,  down 
to  Elijah  McCoy's  well-known  lubricating  cups  for  ma 
chinery  in  motion,  the  last  patent  issuing  to  him  in  1912. 
This  number  does  not  represent  more  than  one  half  of 
the  patents  granted  Negro  inventors.  The  credit  for  the 
others  "must  perhaps  lie  forever  hidden  in  the  unbreak 
able  silence  of  official  records." 

The  importance  of  some  of  these  inventions  may  be 
gathered  from  a  few  examples.  Granville  T.  Wood  sold 
several  of  his  patents,  one  reported  to  have  brought 
$10,000,  to  the  General  Electric  Company  and  the  Ameri 
can  Bell  Telephone  Company.  The  lubricating  cups  of 
Elijah  McCoy  have  been  famous  for  more  than  thirty- 
five  years  as  a  "necessary  equipment  in  all  up-to-date 
machinery,"  most  machinists  probably  never  dreaming 
about  the  race  of  the  inventor.  One  of  the  most  out 
standing  achievements  is  the  machine  known  as  the 
"nigger-head  laster"  invented  by  Jan  Matzeliger,  a  Negro 
shoemaker  in  a  factory  at  Lynn,  Mass.  This  machine 
does  "automatically  all  the  operations  involved  in  attach 
ing  soles  to  shoes."  The  patent  was  purchased  from 
Matzeliger  by  Sidney  Winslow  and  the  promotion  of  this 
machine  laid  the  foundation  for  the  United  Shoe  Ma 
chinery  Company  and  the  great  wealth  of  its  owners  and 
promoters.1 

In  the  field  of  scientific  discovery,  the  work  of  Dr. 
Elmer  S.  Imes  in  magnetic  physics  has  received  recog 
nition  by  the  leading  scientists  in  America  and  Europe. 
Dr.  Ernest  E.  Just,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Turner,  and  Dr. 
George  Turner  are  names  well  known  among  biolo- 

1  See  statements  in  Munsey's  Magazine,  August,  1912,  p.  722. 


56          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

gists.  Industrial  and  agricultural  chemistry  are  debtors 
to  several  Negroes,  the  most  noted  of  whom  is  Pro 
fessor  George  W.  Carver.  The  science  of  history  knows 
well  the  name  of  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  and  is  beginning  to 
acknowledge  the  work  of  Dr.  C.  G.  Woodson  and  Pro 
fessor  Charles  H.  Wesley.  With  the  larger  educational 
opportunity  fostered  by  Christian  support,  greater  results 
will  follow  than  have  already  been  attained. 

Strength  in  Negro  leadership.  Another  factor  in  the 
progress  of  the  last  sixty  years  has  been  the  remarkable 
leaders  among  the  Negroes.  Many  of  these  Negro  lead 
ers  have  been  men  and  women  of  such  outstanding  ability 
and  character  that  they  have  been  recognized,  not  only 
as  Negroes,  but  as  among  the  great  American  citizens. 
Frederick  Douglass,  Booker  T.  Washington,  W.  E.  B. 
Dubois,  Harriet  Tubman,  Blanche  K.  Bruce,  John  M. 
Langston,  Alexander  Crumwell,  Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar, 
James  Varick,  Richard  Allen,  Bishop  Alexander  Walters, 
and  Bishop  Daniel  A.  Payne  are  some  of  the  more  nota 
ble  characters  whose  names  are  known  in  both  the  white 
and  Negro  world.  Besides  these,  there  sleep  under  the 
million  stars  a  corps  of  others  who  have  worked  for  the 
advancement  of  the  masses  with  devotion,  with  power, 
and  with  large  success. 

Moreover,  if  one  goes  over  the  list  of  Negroes  in  many 
walks  of  life  in  different  communities,  he  is  impressed 
by  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  these  people  have  been 
trained  in  the  mission  schools  established  by  the  several 
denominations.  This  is  not  only  testimony  to  the  po 
tency  of  the  training  they  received,  but  a  clarion  call  to 
the  churches  to  supply  secondary  and  higher  institutions 
of  learning  within  the  reach  of  the  masses  of  the  Negroes 
of  the  South,  that  in  the  future  there  may  be  a  better 
trained  leadership. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  57 

Progress  in  religious  life.  The  highest  expression  of 
Negro  life  both  in  individuals  and  in  groups  is  through 
their  churches.  Religious  expression  has  been  the  very 
life  blood  of  the  Negro  heart.  Shut  out  from  many  of 
the  civic  activities  of  the  communities  and  the  nation, 
restricted  from  much  of  its  great  business  development, 
limited  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  surging  intellectual  life, 
the  Negro  has  found  an  outlet  for  his  great  self-expres 
sion  through  the  organizations  of  his  churches  and  their 
activities.  Some  indications  of  this  religious  life  and 
progress  should  be  mentioned. 

The  Negro  loves  his  Church  and  pours  into  its  organi 
zation  and  life  enthusiasm,  money,  and  energy,  all  largely 
increased  because  other  avenues  for  group  expression  are 
closed  to  him.  In  1860  there  were  probably  about  1,000 
edifices  and  about  700,000  Negro  church  members  in  the 
United  States.  In  1920,  about  five  out  of  every  eleven 
Negroes  in  the  United  States  were  church  members. 
They  had  about  37,773  church  edifices  and  about  3,618 
parsonages  in  1916  with  an  estimated  value  of  more  than 
$73,681,668  and  an  estimated  indebtedness  of  more  than 
$16,175,559.  The  distinctly  Negro  denominations  of  ex 
clusively  Negro  churches  had  about  3,205,047  members 
in  1906  and  about  4,083,278  members  in  1916.  The  de 
nominations  consisting  of  white  and  Negro  members  had 
about  439,545  Negro  members  in  1906  and  480,771  Negro 
members  in  1916.  In  the  Negro  denominations  alone 
there  were  about  31,624  ministers  in  1906  and  about 
34,962  in  I9I6.1 

The  average  Negro  country  church  comprises  usually 
a  rectangular  frame  structure,  often  unpainted  outside 
and  in,  with  plain  benches,  and  a  platform  and  pulpit  for 

1  World  Survey,  American  volume,  Interchurch  World  Move 
ment,  section  on  Negro  Americans  prepared  by  the  writer. 


58  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  preacher.  Sometimes  there  are  special  enclosures  for 
the  choir  and  a  reed  organ.  Services  are  held  once  or 
twice  a  month  with  Sunday-school  as  a  seasonal  activity 
controlled  by  the  weather  and  condition  of  the  roads. 
Financial  support  is  inadequate  for  a  resident  pastor,  and 
he  usually  lives  in  a  near-by  town  or  city  and  visits  two 
or  more  churches  on  successive  Sabbaths.  City  churches 
are  better  supplied,  as  a  rule,  in  both  building  and  other 
equipment.  The  structures  quite  frequently  are  brick  or 
stone  with  modern  improvements,  musical  instruments, 
and  other  aids  to  worship.  They  are  served  by  full-time 
ministers.  Sunday-schools  and  other  auxiliary  organiza 
tions  are  better  organized  and  led  than  in  country 
churches. 

One  of  the  great  factors,  if  not  the  greatest,  in  the 
development  of  Negro  religious  life  has  been  the  Negro 
minister.  Although  he  has  often  been  severely  censured, 
he  has,  nevertheless,  been  a  real  leader  of  his  people. 
Even  if  he  has  appealed  to  their  emotions,  he  has  also 
soothed  their  sorrows.  If  he  has  played  upon  their 
imagination,  he  has  also  given  them  inspiration  and  hope 
in  the  face  of  discouragement  and  earthly  trials.  If  he 
has  unduly  stirred  their  feelings,  he  has  also  preached  to 
them  patient  forbearance  in  the  face  of  provocations.  It 
may  be  true  that  he  has  not  generally  been  equipped  with 
adequate  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  of  church  history,  and 
of  the  duties  and  requirements  of  ministers  or  priests, 
yet  he  has  often  preached  with  a  natural  eloquence  that 
has  lifted  his  hearers  out  of  the  commonplace;  he  has 
ministered  to  them  with  a  spontaneous  grace  that  has  sent 
them  on  their  way  with  rejoicing  in  the  hope  of  a  brighter 
future  and  with  power  to  live  a  better  daily  life.  When 
all  is  said,  scattered  here  and  there  among  the  ministers 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  59 

of  the  Negro  people  there  have  been  and  are  men  of 
character  and  knowledge  who  have  gone  about  their  work 
with  an  unselfish  devotion  which  will  bear  comparison 
with  the  ministers  of  the  Cross  anywhere. 

One  significant  index  of  Negro  religious  advancement 
has  been  the  growth  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso 
ciation  and  Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 
Among  the  men,  45  city  associations  were  reported  in 
1920.  Of  these,  10  were  in  Southern  and  border  cities. 
There  were  15  additional  industrial  associations  con 
nected  with  plants  where  Negroes  were  employed.  There 
were  7  international  secretaries,  100  local  secretaries, 
20,000  members,  and  property  valued  at  more  than 
$2,000,000.  Among  the  women,  were  reported  49  asso 
ciations  and  4  affiliated  clubs  of  colored  women,  12  na 
tional  and  85  local  workers,  and  a  membership  of  23,683. 
The  Negro  takes  his  religion  as  the  dominating  fact  and 
factor  in  his  life.  If,  therefore,  Christian  America  can 
rise  with  enthusiasm  to  meet  these  aspirations  of  a  people 
struggling  to  reach  the  higher  things  of  life,  the  churches 
can  be  made  a  most  powerful  factor  in  the  advancement 
of  the  people  and  the  promotion  of  brotherly  cooperation 
between  the  races.  Here,  then,  in  the  changed  conditions 
of  the  Negro  in  agriculture,  in  industry,  in  business,  and 
in  the  professions;  in  his  educational  achievements,  in 
his  homes,  churches,  and  the  community,  we  have  new 
situations  calling  for  a  new  set  of  feelings,  attitudes,  and 
habits  of  action  in  race  relations. 

Need  for  increased  opportunities.  It  should  be 
pointed  out  in  closing  that,  as  a  result  of  experiences 
North  and  South,  the  development  of  these  people  and 
the  development  of  leadership  to  carry  them  forward 
during  the  coming  years  call  for  opportunities  larger 


60          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

than  they  have  had  in  the  past.  They  need  the  following 
essential  elements  in  the  economic  relations  of  Negro 
workers,  white  workers,  and  employers : 1 

1 I )  A  fair  chance  in  industry ;  to  get  work  and  to  hold 
it  upon  the  same  terms  of  tenure  and  of  wage  as  white 
workers. 

(2)  The  opportunity  for  Negro  workers  to  be  trained 
for  and  to  be  advanced  to  the  more  skilled  and  highly 
paid  occupations,  as  they  show  equal  ability  to  fill  them. 
This  is  a  reasonable,  fair,  and  American  principle  which 
in  practise  will  not  jeopardize  the  white  workman  nor 
retard  industry. 

(3)  The  adjustment  of  the  conditions  of  Negro  tenants 
and  farm  laborers  of  the   South,   so  that  those   whose 
hands  produce  the  crops  may  share  equitably  in  their 
bounty.     This  will  benefit  all  those  whose  interests  rest 
upon  Southern  agriculture.     A  fairly  treated,  more  ef 
ficient  Negro  farmer  and  farm  laborer  will  give  more 
lint  to  the  cotton  mills,  more  seed  to  the  oil  mills,  more 
corn  for  the  miller,  more  peanuts  and  tobacco  for  the 
factories,  more  prosperity  for  the  merchant,  the  indus 
trial  captain,  and  the  banker. 

(4)  With  the  entrance  of  Negro  women  into  industry, 
and  in  their  relations  to  domestic  and  personal  service, 
better  treatment,  training,  and  wages  will  have  an  effect 
upon  every  industrial  plant  where  they  are  employed  and 
upon  every  home  where  they  serve. 

(5)  The  improvement  of  the  housing  and  neighborhood 
conditions  where  Negro  workers  live  will  not  only  help 
the  Negro  workers,  but  add  to  the  health  and  happiness 
of  every  person  in  the  community. 

1  The  substance  of  some  of  these  points  is  drawn  from  a  De 
partment  of  Labor  report  prepared  by  the  author,  entitled  "The 
Negro  at  Work  During  the  World  War  and  During  Reconstruc 
tion,"  Government  Print,  Washington,  1921. 


SIXTY  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS  61 

(6)  The  white  employer  of   Negro  labor,  the  white 
worker  engaged  in  the  same  occupation  with  the  Negro, 
and  the  Negro  worker  himself, — the  interests  of  all  three 
are  involved.    Friendly  adjustment  of  the  labor  situation 
will  be  most  far  reaching  in  bringing  just  and  coopera 
tive  race  relations.    Because  of  his  cheerful,  non-militant 
temperament,  the  Negro  worker  can  help  the  white  em 
ployer  and  white  worker  to  see  that  all  are  engaged  in  a 
joint  enterprise.    This  may  help  to  lead  all  away  from  the 
policy  and  theory  of  class  war  now  widespread  in  the 
industrial  field. 

(7)  The  Negro  wage  earners  furnish  the  backbone, 
economically  speaking,  of  the  progress  of  the  whole  group 
because  the  business  and  professional   men  must  draw 
their  patronage  from  them.    They  also  are  the  main  labor 
dependence    of    many    communities.      Color    should    no 
longer  weigh  in  the  opportunities  for  entrance  into  indus 
trial  occupations,  especially  the  higher  and  skilled  occu 
pations.     Race  should  no  longer  play  a  part  in  the  con 
ditions  of  tenantry  and  the  opportunities  to  take  advan 
tage  of  federal  farm  loans,  for  the  purchase  of  land  and 
the  improvement  of  farm  homes.    The  application  of  the 
Golden  Rule  to  them  would  work  wonders  in  race  rela 
tions  and  show  that  the  principle  is  truly  golden. 

Not  only  opportunities  in  the  agricultural  and  indus 
trial  field,  but  opportunities  in  the  intellectual,  civic, 
moral,  and  spiritual  fields  are  required  if  the  prophecy 
of  achievement  shown  by  the  remarkable  progress  of 
the  last  sixty  years  is  to  be  fulfilled.  The  time  has 
arrived  when  the  color  of  a  man's  skin  should  no 
longer  be  an  excuse  for  any  kind  of  injustice  to  him, 
or  a  cloak  for  a  denial  of  the  full  measure  of  protection, 
justice,  and  opportunity  guaranteed  to  every  American 
by  the  very  fundamental  law  of  our  republic.  These 


62  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

people  need  schools,  set  and  developed  upon  the  stand 
ards  of  the  best  that  America  has  in  its  vision.  They  need 
churches,  and  guidance  in  those  churches,  that  shall  be 
marked  by  the  highest  type  of  equipment,  of  policy,  of 
plans,  programs,  and  personnel  that  shall  make  them  the 
par  of  any  similar  facilities  for  the  development  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  life  of  America.  They  ask  Christian 
America  for  a  new  spirit,  a  new  attitude  and  a  new  way 
of  acting  toward  them  in  better  keeping  with  the  ideal  of 
Christian  brotherhood. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Trend  of  the  Negro  World 

THE  practical  test  of  human  capacity,  physical,  mental, 
and  spiritual,  is  the  struggle  of  life.  After  all  the  dis 
cussion  about  the  capacity  of  the  Negro,  his  struggles  and 
achievements  under  the  conditions  that  have  met  him  in 
American  life  are  the  evidences  of  his  capacity.  During 
the  hearings  of  a  committee  of  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives  on  the  Fordney  Emergency  Tariff 
Bill,  a  short,  thin,  coal-black  man,  a  professor  from  one 
of  the  Negro  institutions  of  the  South,  was  ushered  be 
fore  the  committee.  The  chairman  announced  with  em 
phasis  that  the  gentleman  would  be  given  ten  minutes  to 
talk  about  southern  peanuts  and  their  need  of  protection 
by  the  tariff.  In  a  high,  tenor  voice  and  with  a  smile 
on  his  face,  the  speaker  began.  As  he  neared  his  time 
limit,  one  of  the  congressmen  on  the  committee  arose  to 
ask  that  his  time  be  extended  some  minutes  more.  He 
continued,  giving  more  information  about  his  researches 
into  the  many  uses  to  be  made  of  the  "ground  pea,"  from 
a  substitute  for  cow's  milk  made  of  its  fat  to  polishing 
powder  to  be  made  from  its  hulls  and  to  ink  and  dyes 
from  its  skin. 

The  members  of  the  committee  leaned  toward  the 
swarthy  speaker  with  wide-open  eyes  and  plied  him  with 
questions.  Presently  the  chairman  said,  "Go  ahead, 
brother ;  your  time  is  unlimited."  *  He  closed  after  about 
an  hour,  declaring  that,  from  his  study  and  experiments, 
he  believed  that  with  the  sweet  potato  and  the  peanut,  the 

1  Hearings  before  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  House 
of  Representatives,  Sixty-sixth  Congress,  No.  14,  January  21, 
1921. 

63 


64          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

South,  if  necessary,  could  feed  itself,  grow  fat,  and  have 
a  surplus  for  other  parts  of  the  country.  When  he  had 
finished,  the  chairman  and  committee  gave  him  a  vote  of 
thanks,  and  the  white  Southern  peanut  promoters  who 
had  brought  him  to  Washington  as  their  spokesman  went 
out  elated. 

When,  during  the  World  War,  Hudson  Maxim  made 
the  confidential  experiments  for  the  United  States  on  the 
use  of  magnetism  with  torpedoes,  he  had  as  his  assistant 
a  young  Negro  man,  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  Southern 
missionary  colleges,  and  a  Ph.D.  in  physics  from  the 
University  of  Michigan,  who  is  an  authority  on  mag 
netics,  and  who  now  holds  a  position  with  a  leading  firm 
of  consulting  engineers. 

During  the  War,  the  employment  superintendent  of  one 
of  the  largest  foundries  in  the  country,  employing  white 
and  Negro  molders  and  workmen,  was  a  stalwart  Negro, 
a  technical  graduate  of  a  state  university. 

One  of  the  preachers  whom  Methodists  send  for  to 
speak  at  their  conferences  is  a  minister  of  a  Negro  con 
gregation  who  did  not  have  an  opportunity  for  an  educa 
tion  until  he  was  nearly  a  man.  And  one  of  the  special 
sermons  recently  given  large  space  in  a  leading  homiletic 
magazine  was  prepared  by  a  minister  of  one  of  the  Negro 
denominations. 

From  one  of  the  missionary  schools  there  went  out 
in  the  early  eighties  to  the  uninviting  sand  hills  of  cen 
tral  Alabama  a  quiet  Negro  man  who  began  a  work 
which  has  not  only  influenced  the  Negro  of  America  but 
which  has  contributed  to  the  educational  practise  of  the 
South,  the  nation,  and  the  world.  Some  of  his  students 
have  gone  to  various  other  out-of-the-way  places  in  rural 
districts  and  towns  and  have  set  up  schools  which  have 


be 
<u 

X 


co     S 

<       rt 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  65 

been  beacons  to  the  oppressed  and  neglected.  Recently 
white  and  Negro  citizens  from  every  section  of  the  nation 
gathered  and  unveiled  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Booker  T.  Washington  and  vied  with  each  other  in 
praising  his  name. 

These  examples  may  introduce  the  reader  to  the  types 
of  mental  and  spiritual  capacity  which  Negroes  of  educa 
tion  and  character  are  showing  in  America.  Twenty-two 
such  Negroes  have  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  the  highest  university  recognition  earned  in 
residence,  from  the  most  representative  institutions  in 
cluding  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Chi 
cago.  Three  of  these  are  full-blood  Negroes  who  can 
trace  their  lineage  back  to  Africa,  and  three  are  women. 
More  than  seven  hundred  Negroes  have  surmounted  the 
obstacles  and  have  been  graduated  from  the  best  North 
ern  colleges.  Over  six  thousand  others  have  been  grad 
uated  from  missionary  colleges  of  the  South. 

Evidence  of  mental  capacity  in  the  Negro.  The  test 
of  mental  capacity  and  temperamental  efficiency  is  the  use 
of  the  mind.1  The  evidence  of  such  capacity  and  effi 
ciency  in  the  Negro  is  the  acquisition  and  use  of  such 
education  as  the  surrounding  opportunities  offer  and  the 
success  he  has  achieved  in  the  struggle  of  life  in  Amer 
ica.  The  weight  of  evidence  and  the  best  authorities  to 
day  along  this  line  point  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  not 
the  lack  of  mental  capacity  and  temperamental  efficiency 
of  the  Negro,  but  the  poverty  in  mental  property,  the  ac 
cumulated  knowledge  of  our  times  and  freedom  to  use  it, 
which  has  made  a  great  difference  between  the  Negro 

1  See  Appendix  for  a  brief  summary  of  the  principal  scientific 
opinions  on  the  question  of  Negro  mental  capacity.  The  text 
here  deals  with  the  life  experience  aspects. 


66  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

group  and  other  races.1  In  spite  of  the  effects  of  servi 
tude,  of  the  grievously  inadequate  school  facilities,  and  of 
the  restrictions  of  the  adult  population  from  participation 
in  much  of  the  great  stream  of  economic,  intellectual,  and 
civic  life,  most  authoritative  testimony  agrees  that  the 
Negro  in  America  has  made  substantial  progress  in  edu 
cation,  in  acquisition  of  wealth,  in  production  of  litera 
ture,  art  and  music,  and  in  other  evidences  of  such  ca 
pacity  and  temperament. 

Furthermore,  hundreds  of  native  Africans  have  gone  to 
Europe  and  America  and  have  been  successful,  some  of 
them  winning  distinction,  in  pursuing  courses  of  study  at 
the  best  colleges  and  universities.  Many  of  them  have 
later  used  their  knowledge  and  skill  effectively  in  Amer 
ica,  Europe,  and  Africa.  A  native  African  from  the  Gold 
Coast,  having  been  educated  in  a  Southern  missionary 
college  and  Columbia  University,  and  having  spent  nearly 
twenty  years  as  a  professor  and  officer  in  a  Southern 
Negro  college,  is  preparing  to  return  to  Africa  to  lead 
an  educational  movement.  On  a  recent  tour  of  that  con 
tinent  he  convinced  Europeans  of  his  learning  and  cul 
ture  in  their  critical  contact  with  him.  Another  native 
African  is  now  studying  at  Columbia  University  for  a 
similar  purpose.  These  two  are  typical  examples  of 
scores.  An  American  Negro  graduate  of  a  Baptist  mis 
sion  college  of  North  Carolina  sailed  last  year  to  become 
National  Secretary  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  in  South  Africa. 
During  the  World  War  he  served  as  a  secretary  in  East 
Africa,  India,  and  Europe. 

Where  Negroes  have  come  in  considerable  numbers 
into  communities  in  which  some  of  the  handicaps  and 

1  See  Thomas,  W.  I.,  Source  Book  for  Social  Origins; 
Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  pp.  60-64;  Ratael,  History  of  Man 
kind,  Vol.  II,  pp.  317  ff.;  Finot,  Jean,  Race  Prejudice,  pp. 
S7-io8,  129-132,  201-215. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  67 

restrictions  upon  their  free  participation  in  the  life  about 
them  have  been  removed,  individual  achievements  have 
often  been  such  that  those  who  made  them  were  regarded 
as  prodigies  rather  than  as  concrete  illustrations  of  the 
capacity  of  a  people.  Examples  of  these  results  are  at 
hand  in  many  communities  as  a  result  of  the  missionary 
activities  of  the  past  sixty  years.  The  opportunity  of 
Negroes  to  use  the  intellectual  property  in  such  mission 
ary  college  centers  as  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  Mar 
shall,  Tex.,  Tuskegee,  Hampton,  and  Richmond,  Va., 
Wilberforce,  Ohio,  and  other  places  has  brought  to  the 
surface  hundreds  of  Negro  men  and  women  with  minds 
and  spirits  that  have  not  only  demonstrated  their  capacity 
to  acquire  such  intellectual  property  of  our  modern  world, 
but  to  use  this  material  for  substantial  achievements. 

The  question,  then,  of  our  further  search  among  the 
Negro  people  in  America  is  a  study  in  characteristic  men 
tal  feelings,  attitudes,  and  habits  as  indications  of  mental 
capacity  and  efficiency.  This  chapter  is  an  attempt  to 
analyze  the  results  of  the  mental  experience  of  a  large 
proportion  of  Negroes,  in  order  to  understand  their  part 
in  making  the  public  opinion  which  controls  race  rela 
tions.  There  is  no  attempt  here  at  an  academic  study  of 
group  psychology.  The  existence  and  possession  of  the 
acquisitive,  sex,  and  other  human  instincts,  as  well  as  the 
fundamental  emotions,  by  the  white  and  Negro  people 
are  taken  for  granted. 

Feelings  influence  attitudes  and  conduct.  When 
we  turn  to  feelings,  attitudes,  and  habits  of  action 
of  Negroes,  two  lines  of  facts  are  before  us.  First, 
there  are  certain  mental  feelings,  attitudes,  and  habits 
that  have  resulted  in  definite  contributions  to  science, 
the  arts,  and  to  community  life,  which  records  show 
Negroes  to  have  made.  This  may  be  termed  the  cur- 


68  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

rent  of  the  interior  Negro  World.  Second,  there  are 
feelings,  thoughts,  and  action  which  have  affected  Negro 
individuals  and  groups  as  they  have  responded  to  the 
feelings,  attitudes,  and  habits  of  acting  of  the  larger  white 
world.  These  are  currents  from  the  outer  white  world 
that  have  been  bent  by  the  mind  of  the  Negro,  according 
to  its  own  genius.  The  first  type  of  mental  results  is 
here  indicated  in  the  discussion  of  Negro  contributions  in 
humor,  drama,  music,  literature,  art  and  religion.  The 
second  type  is  treated  in  the  other  sections  of  the  chapter. 
Humor  and  dramatic  ability.  It  is  not  an  accident 
that  three  of  the  leading  American  comedians  of  the 
past  decade  were  Negroes, — Ernest  Hogan,  George 
Walker,  and  Bert  Williams,  and  that  two  of  the  leading 
ones  to-day  are  F.  E.  Miller  and  Aubrey  Lyles.  One  of 
the  popular  dramatic  actors  is  Charles  Gilpin,  a  Negro. 
The  power  to  see  the  cheerful,  humorous  side  of  life  has 
made  the  smiling  Negro  face  a  characteristic  one. 
Williams  said,  in  an  article  in  the  American  Magazine  on 
"The  Comic  Side  of  Trouble,"  that  much  of  his  material 
was  drawn  from  the  Negro  life  he  observed  daily  about 
him.  He  described  humor  as  the  power  of  seeing  one 
self  in  a  difficult  or  embarrassing  situation  and  of  being 
ready  to  smile  with  others  in  spite  of  one's  own  predica 
ment;  as,  for  example,  when  one  slips  on  the  ice  and 
tumbles.  These  dramatic  artists  are  examples  of  what 
may  develop  in  the  case  of  many  other  Negroes  of  his 
trionic  capacity  if  favorable  chances  enable  them  to 
break  through  the  barriers  that  have  thwarted  the  aspi 
ration  of  many  a  black  artist.  Ira  Aldridge,  an  American 
Negro,  a  great  Shakespearean  tragedian,  sought  the  stage 
in  England,  Germany,  and  Russia  because  he  could  not 
get  a  chance  in  the  American  theater.  Recently  a  popu 
lar  moving  picture  star  whose  face  had  become  a  film 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  69 

feature  was  dismissed  by  a  well-known  producing  firm 
when  it  was  discovered  she  had  Negro  blood.  When 
more  of  such  talent  gets  a  chance,  it  will  make  a  sub 
stantial  contribution  to  America. 

This  characteristic  humor  overflows  in  popular  Negro 
poetry  and  music  and  is  present  at  almost  every  gathering 
of  Negroes.  As  one  travels  in  the  South,  this  cheerful 
ness  of  heart  may  be  seen  reflected  in  the  faces  of  the 
Negroes  gathered  at  the  railroad  stations.  This  overflow 
ing  good  feeling  smiles  at  trouble,  mocks  at  restrictions, 
and  makes  the  Negro  able  to  take  neither  himself,  his 
race,  nor  the  world  too  much  as  Atlas  took  the  burden 
upon  his  shoulders.  It  enables  him  to  help  the  world  for 
get  its  sorrows. 

Some  may  misjudge  this  Negro  trait  as  a  happy-go- 
lucky  attitude.  Far  from  it;  the  Negro  loves  his  home, 
his  family,  and  his  friends ;  but  he  appreciates  too  much 
of  the  cheerful  and  dramatic  in  life  to  worry  himself  sick 
over  its  "passing  show."  For  instance,  a  Negro  poet 
sings: 

We  have  fashioned  laughter 
Out  of  tears  and  pain, 
But  the  moment  after — 
Pain  and  tears  again. 

Capacity  for  music.  For  the  expression  of  musical 
feeling  and  conception  in  past  generations,  the  Negroes 
have  not  been  dependent  upon  theatrical  audiences  and 
technical  equipment.  When  music  welled  up  in  their 
souls,  they  opened  their  mouths  and  sang.  In  the  cotton 
fields  of  the  slave  plantation  they  could  hear  the  tunes 
of  GabriePs  harp,  and  they  responded  with  vibrant,  tune 
ful  voices.  In  the  forests  about  these  fields  they  could 
detect  the  "brush  of  angels'  wings."  They  burst  forth 
in  notes  commanding  the  heavenly  chariots  to  "swing 


7o  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

low"  and  carry  them  home  from  a  humdrum  life  of  harsh 
toil  and  harsher  treatment. 

When  opportunity  for  training  in  technical  skill  has 
been  offered  and  the  appreciation  of  a  supporting  public 
has  furnished  favorable  conditions,  this  well-spring  of 
musical  feeling  has  poured  forth  a  finished  work  on  a 
plane  to  compare  favorably  with  that  of  the  musicians 
of  any  race.  Samuel  Coleridge-Taylor,1  born  of  an  Afri 
can  father  in  England,  was  fortunate  in  finding  a  bene 
factor  who  opened  the  doors  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Music  and  other  opportunities  for  him,  until  the  British 
public  began  to  know  and  appreciate.  His  music  to  Long 
fellow's  "Hiawatha"  is  a  notable  contribution.  While 
this  composition  deals  with  a  story  of  Indian  life,  many 
a  strain  of  African  melody,  crystallized  in  the  vocal  and 
orchestral  score,  is  a  delight  to  the  musical  world.  Among 
his  compositions  are  his  great  "Tale  of  Old  Japan"  and 
his  musical  settings  for  Stephen  Phillips'  "Herod," 
"Ulysses,"  and  "Nero."  What  a  loss  there  might  have 
been,  had  he  lived  under  the  restrictions  of  America ! 

Some  American  Negroes  in  recent  years  have  been 
sounding  forth  melody  of  song  and  string  of  a  high 
quality.  Harry  T.  Burleigh,  for  many  years  a  soloist  at 
St.  George's  Episcopal  Church  in  New  York,  has  ar 
ranged  the  tunes  of  many  of  the  old  Negro  plantation 
songs,  "the  spirituals,"  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  who  have 
heard  them.  His  arrangement  of  "Deep  River,"  "I  stood 
on  de  Ribber  of  Jordan,"  and  "Bye-and-bye  Coin*  to  Lay 
Down  my  Heavy  Load"  have  their  places  now  in  many 
a  musical  repertoire.  Besides  work  in  this  direction, 
Mr.  Burleigh  has  a  number  of  original  art  compositions 
which  display  a  wide  range  of  emotion  and  a  thorough 

1  Haynes,  Elizabeth  Ross,  Unsung  Heroes,  pp.  127-149. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  71 

grasp  of  musical  knowledge  and  technical  skill.  He  is 
now  editor  for  Ricordi,  the  music  publisher. 

Rosamond  Johnson,  who  published  a  number  of  com 
positions  in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  in  years  past,  was 
not  generally  known  to  its  readers  as  a  man  of  color. 
He  was  born  in  Florida  and  trained  in  a  missionary 
school  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  Later  he  enjoyed  the  free 
dom  of  art  in  New  York.  His  brother,  mentioned  below, 
wrote  the  words  of  many  of  his  songs.  R.  Nathaniel 
Dett  in  recent  years  has  been  developing  themes  and 
melodies  from  the  Negro  folk  songs.  One  of  his  com 
positions,  "Listen  to  the  Lambs,"  has  put  into  imperish 
able  score  the  plantation  melody  which  recites  the  story 
of  Christ's  testing  of  Peter.  His  "Juba  Dance,"  woven 
out  of  the  rhythm  of  a  Negro  dance,  has  been  played  and 
enjoyed  in  almost  every  land.  His  "Chariot  Jubilee"  has 
enlarged  the  simple  melody  of  "Swing  low,  Sweet 
Chariot"  into  a  motet  for  voices  and  orchestra.  With 
the  larger  opportunities  growing  out  of  his  position  as 
Musical  Director  of  Hampton  Institute,  later  years  will 
doubtless  see  more  and  greater  expression  of  the  music 
singing  in  the  soul  of  his  people. 

During  the  past  ten  years  Roland  Hayes,  a  black  boy 
from  Tennessee,  has  given  evidence  by  his  tenor  voice 
of  the  "flowers  of  purest  ray  serene"  which  lie  hidden  in 
the  "dark,  unfathomed  caves"  of  Negro  life.  Hayes  was 
"discovered"  by  a  friend  who  sent  him  to  a  missionary 
college  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  established  and  supported 
by  one  of  the  Northern  missionary  associations.  Some 
friends  found  further  openings  with  one  of  the  best 
music  teachers  of  Boston.  Hayes  has  a  tenor  voice  which 
musical  critics  declare  has  possibilities  for  grand  opera. 
His  face  is  black,  and  therefore  no  American  manager 
has  dared  to  take  him.  Two  years  ago  he  went  to  Eng- 


72  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

land.  There  he  has  been  received  by  leading  musical 
artists  and  critics.  Recently  he  was  invited  by  His  Maj 
esty  to  sing  at  Buckingham  Palace.  Not  only  did  he 
sing  the  Negro  "spirituals,"  to  the  delight  of  the  royal 
family,  but  his  rendition  of  some  of  the  great  classical 
works  called  forth  praise  from  the  King,  who,  as  a  token 
of  appreciation,  presented  him  with  a  diamond  pin  bear 
ing  the  royal  insignia. 

Space  does  not  permit  a  description  of  the  work  of 
other  singers  such  as  Mrs.  Florence  Cole  Talbert,  a 
soprano  praised  by  the  best  judges,  Madam  Azalea  Hack- 
ley,  who  delighted  many  American  audiences,  and  Albert 
Greenlaw,  whose  bass  voice  a  vocal  expert  called  the 
most  nearly  perfect  voice  he  had  ever  heard.  Raymond 
Augustus  Lawson,  Helen  Hagan,  and  Hazel  Harrison 
as  pianists ;  Clarence  Cameron  White,  Joseph  Douglass,  a 
grandson  of  Frederick  Douglass,  and  Kemper  Harrold 
as  violinists ;  Will  Marion  Cook  and  James  Reese  Europe 
as  orchestral  leaders,  are  examples  chosen  from  a  number 
of  promising  persons  of  color  who  have  made  commend 
able  records,  even  under  the  tremendous  color  handicaps 
in  America.  No  claim  is  here  made  that  Negroes  out 
strip  other  people  in  music.  We  recall,  however,  that 
many  leading  musical  authorities  have  declared  that  the 
Negro  has  produced  in  his  folk-songs  the  only  original 
American  music.  We  may  surmise  what  a  musical  con 
tribution  many  members  of  this  race  will  make  to  America 
and  to  the  world  when  full-fledged  opportunity  is  given 
them. 

This  music  of  the  Negro  soul  has  a  rhythm  which  pul 
sates  in  his  muscular  movement  even  when  he  walks 
and  works.  Any  one  who  wishes  may  observe  a  gang 
of  Negro  laborers  keeping  time  at  their  work  while  a 
strawboss  or  "caller"  sings  some  rhythmic,  syncopated 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  73 

tune.  A  similar  rhythm  may  be  observed  among  Negro 
stevedores  trotting  in  and  out  of  a  vessel  they  are  load 
ing,  or  among  freight  handlers  in  large  warehouses. 
Khrebiel,  the  noted  critic,  says  that  this  rhythm  with  a 
pristine,  plaintive  melody  is  the  dominant  characteristic 
of  native  African  music.  McMaster,  in  describing  the 
slaves  of  the  early  eighteenth  century,  says:  "Of  music 
and  the  dance  they  were  passionately  fond.  With  frag 
ments  of  a  sheep's  rib,  with  a  cow's  jaw  or  a  piece  of 
iron,  with  an  old  kettle  or  a  bit  of  wood,  with  a  hollow 
gourd  and  a  few  horse  hairs,  they  would  fabricate  instru 
ments  of  music  and  play  the  most  plaintive  airs."  The 
"cake  walk"  which  Negroes  perform  for  the  amusement 
of  white  patrons  at  pleasure  resorts  is  a  rhythmical  ex 
pression  of  harmony  between  supple  muscles  and  musical 
minds.  The  "rocking"  and  "shouting"  of  popular  church 
gatherings  among  Negroes  are  responses  through  motion 
to  the  waves  of  rhythmic  emotion  sweeping  through  brain 
and  nerve.1  Many  of  the  "spirituals"  are  improvised  at 
such  meetings  as  vocal  expressions  by  means  of  which 
the  members  of  the  congregation  keep  time  in  their  move 
ments. 

Capacity  for  poetry.  Music,  probably,  has  always 
been  the  companion  art  of  poetry  as  the  highest  expres 
sion  of  spiritual  life  of  a  nation  or  a  race  as  it  has 
striven  to  give  voice  to  its  deepest  feelings,  desires,  and 
profoundest  attitudes  toward  the  world.2  Professor  Rob 
ert  Kerlin,  a  Southern  white  man,  formerly  of  Virginia 
Military  Institute,  says:  "A  people's  poetry  affords  the 
most  serious  subject  of  study  to  those  who  would  under 
stand  that  people — that  people's  soul,  that  people's  status, 

1  Coppin,  Levi  J.,  Unwritten  History,  p.  106. 

2  Cf .   Mecklin,  John   M.,  Democracy  and  Race  Friction,  pp. 

55-57- 


74          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

that  people's  potentialities.  There  has  been  in  these  years 
a  renaissance  of  the  Negro  soul,  and  poetry  is  one  of  its 
expressions  .  .  .  perhaps  the  most  potent  and  significant 
expression  of  the  re-born  soul  of  the  Negro  in  this  our 
day." 

Citing  several  selections  from  different  authors  to  il 
lustrate  his  points,  Professor  Kerlin  continues :  "In  other 
races,  oratory  and  poetry  have  been  accepted  as  the 
tokens  of  noble  qualities  of  character,  lofty  spiritual 
gifts.  Such  they  are  in  all  races.  They  spring  from 
mankind's  loftiest  aspirations — the  aspirations  for  free 
dom,  for  justice,  for  virtue,  for  honor,  and  for  distinc 
tion.  That  these  impulses,  these  aspirations,  and  these 
endowments  are  in  the  American  Negro  and  are  now 
exhibiting  themselves  in  verse — it  is  this  I  wish  to  show 
to  the  skeptically  minded."  * 

From  colonial  days,  the  American  Negroes  have  had 
their  poets.  In  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  poetess, 
Phillis  Wheatley.  Born  of  native  parents  in  an  African 
jungle,  brought  to  America  when  a  child,  and  sold  as  a 
slave  to  a  Boston  family,  she  was  educated  and  wrote 
poetry  which  was  appreciated  in  America  and  England. 
How  many  potential  poets  who  never  found  expression 
were  lost  in  those  years  cannot  be  told.  Certain  it  is  there 
were  others,  for  many  of  the  old  plantation  songs  were 
composed  by  them.  Prof.  Thomas  W.  Talley  of  Fisk 
University,  himself  a  Negro,  brought  out  a  book  of 
"Negro  Folk  Rhymes"  that  contains  a  number  of  stanzas, 
gathered  from  the  lips  of  the  people,  that  critics  say 
portray  real  poetic  qualities.  In  .1829  a  benefactor  pub 
lished  a  volume  of  poems  of  James  M.  Morton,  a  North 

1  Kerlin,  Robert  T.,  "Contemporary  Poetry  of  the  Negro," 
Hampton  Bulletin,  February,  1921. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  75 

Carolina  slave,  hardly  able  to  read,  who  sang  plaintively : x 

Come,  melting  pity  from  afar. 
And  break  this  vast,  enormous  bar 
Between  a  wretch  and  thee ; 
Purchase  a  few  short  days  of  time, 
And  bid  a  vassal  soar  sublime 
On  Wings  of  Liberty. 

Here  and  there,  during  the  early  nineteenth  century,  in 
Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  lines  of  Negro 
versifiers  found  their  way  into  print.  Negro  bards  had 
sung  their  songs  before  William  Dean  Howells  heard 
Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar  and  brought  him  to  the  notice 
of  the  American  public.  The  work  of  Dunbar  and  of 
William  Stanley  Braithwaite  show  evidence  of  poetic 
vision,  emotion,  and  skill  of  a  very  high  order.  They 
are  only,  however,  the  brighter  stars  in  a  firmament  il 
lumined  by  many  others. 

Every  race  has  its  bards.  The  thing  of  far  reaching 
significance  in  the  case  of  the  American  Negro  to-day  is 
that  these  poets  show  distinctly  and  uniquely  the  possi 
bilities  of  Negroes.  They  are  only  the  forerunners  of 
other  prophets  of  deeper  insight  into  life  and  of  broader 
vision  of  its  meaning  who  will  some  day  speak  forth. 
The  verses  of  James  Weldon  Johnson,  Charles  Bertram 
Johnson,  Joseph  Cotter,  Jr.  and  Sr.,  Leslie  P.  Hill, 
Georgia  Douglass  Johnson,  and  many  others  clearly  show 
latent  genius  longing  for  greater  opportunity.  These 
singers,  with  more  cultivated  art  than  the  slave  could  put 
into  his  "spirituals,"  lead  Professor  Kerlin  to  say:  "Some 
lyrical  drama  like  'Prometheus  Bound/  but  more  touch 
ing  and  more  human ;  some  epic  like  'Paradise  Lost/  but 
nearer  to  the  common  heart  of  man ;  some  'Divine  Com- 

1  Quoted  in  E.  A.  Johnson's  School  History  of  the  Negro  Race 
in  America,  p.  43,  from  the  Raleigh  (N.  C.)  Register,  July  2, 
1829. 


76  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

edy,'  that  shall  be  the  voice  of  those  silent  centuries  of 
slavery  as  Dante's  poem  was  the  voice  of  the  long-silent 
epoch  preceding  it,  is  not  the  improbable  achievement  of 
some  descendent  of  the  slaves."  1 

Not  alone  in  poetry,  but  in  other  forms  of  literature  is 
there  promise  of  production.  The  stories  of  Uncle  Remus 
collected  and  told  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris  were  made 
around  the  cabin  firesides  of  Negroes..  Alexander  Dumas 
was  a  mulatto.  Charles  W.  Chesnutt  wrote  short  stories 
and  novels  that  had  their  day  of  general  popularity.  A 
West  Indian  Negro  reared  in  France  won  the  Goncourt 
prize  in  1921  for  the  best  novel  describing  native  condi 
tions  in  Central  Africa.  The  "Quest  of  the  Silver  Fleece" 
and  the  prose  poems  in  "Souls  of  Black  Folk"  and 
"Darkwater"  will  win  for  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  a  place  as  a 
writer  long  after  the  controversies  over  the  "race  prob 
lem"  are  ended.  The  orations  of  Frederick  Douglass 
almost  touch  the  scale  of  eloquence  of  Edmund  Burke. 
Booker  Washington's  autobiography,  "Up  From  Slavery," 
has  become  classic,  with  translations  into  many  languages. 
Prose  writers  of  greater  ability  may  yet  arise. 

Capacity  for  art.  The  world  of  painting  and  sculpture 
yields  evidence  of  fruitful  expressions  of  Negro  mind. 
Experiments  tried  with  several  groups  of  Negro  children 
without  previous  instruction  in  water  coloring  showed  a 
surprising  "feeling  tone"  for  harmony  in  color  combina 
tions.  Frequently  exercises  in  free-hand  drawing  and 
clay  modeling  taken  at  random  from  grammar  school 
Negro  children  show  a  sense  of  form  and  proportion  be 
yond  that  which  had  been  taught  them.  Henry  O.  Tanner 
had  to  go  abroad  to  get  full  opportunity  to  study.  He 
remained  abroad  permanently  to  do  the  work  which  has 
classed  him  among  the  masters.  His  "Daniel  in  the 

1  Kerlin,  Robert  T.,  work  cited. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  77 

Lion's  Den,"  his  "Washing  the  Disciples'  Feet,"  "The 
Walk  to  Emmaus,"  "The  Annunciation,"  and  several 
other  masterpieces  have  been  accepted  in  the  Louvre  and 
other  leading  art  galleries.  He  has  won  fame  especially 
for  wonderful  harmony  of  light  and  color. 

E.  M.  Bannister,  Richard  Lonsdale  Brown,  Mary 
Howard  Jackson,  Edmonia  Lewis,  Meta  Warwick  Fuller, 
and  John  Henry  Adams  are  prophetic  of  the  many  prom 
ising  recruits  to  art  when  the  sum  of  full  American  op 
portunity  beams  upon  this  people. 

Religious  genius  of  the  Negro.  In  quite  another  di 
rection,  that  of  religious  fervor  and  faith,  we  may  study 
characteristic  attitudes  and  expressions  of  Negro  mind 
as  it  reacts  to  the  currents  of  the  surrounding  world. 
This  is  not  a  claim  that  the  Negro  has  any  monopoly 
upon  the  religious  expression  of  mankind.  Frequently, 
observers  of  Negro  religious  meetings  have  been  led  to 
regard  the  emotional  expression  lightly  or  humorously. 
Such  people  have  seldom  considered  the  serious  mean 
ing  of  these  outbursts  of  religious  enthusiasm  in  terms 
of  social  sanction,  group  control,  and  racial  genius.  Fur 
thermore,  through  his  emotional  ecstasy  the  Negro's 
spirit  has  often  been  relieved  from  the  deadening  effects 
of  toil  and  restricted  liberty.  Shut  out  from  participation 
as  a  citizen  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  in  the  general 
activities  of  the  community  and  the  nation,  the  Negro 
found  in  religious  activity  an  avenue  through  which  his 
personality  has  found  relief  and  outlet. 

This  religious  life  has  other  aspects.  The  faith  of  the 
slave,  especially  during  the  later  years  of  his  bondage, 
that  the  God  to  whom  he  cried  in  moaning  and  longings 
that  could  not  be  uttered,  would  some  day,  somehow, 
bring  liberty  and  opportunity  to  him  and  his  children, 
gave  him  forbearance  to  endure.  Buoyed  up  by  their  re- 


78  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ligious  confidence,  thousands  of  slaves  remained  at  home 
and  cared  for  the  wives  and  children  of  many  masters 
who  were  away  fighting  battles  that  decided  the  destiny 
of  those  slaves.1 

In  the  years  that  followed,  when  thousands  of  the 
white  men  never  returned,  many  of  these  same  fervent 
"followers  of  the  Lamb"  voluntarily  remained  on  the 
farm  and  the  plantation  to  provide  for  the  women  and 
the  children  of  the  white  families.  In  numerous  cases 
this  meant  arduous  toil  and  personal  privation  through 
a  large  part  of  a  lifetime.  This  conduct  was  due  not  to 
weakness  or  cowardice,  nor  was  it  due  to  the  uninformed 
inertia  of  ignorance,  as  the  crowds  that  moved  to  Union 
Army  posts  and  urban  centers  between  1865  and  1870 
showed.  But  it  was  because  of  personal  attachments 
to  those  whom  they  served,  because  of  fidelity  to  family 
trusts  often  definitely  committed  to  them  by  departing 
masters,  and  because  of  a  deep  religious  sympathy  for 
helpless  children  and  bereaved  women. 

It  may  be  asked  how  we  can  reconcile  the  numbers 
of  mean,  vicious,  and  criminal  characters  among  Negroes 
with  this  opinion  of  religious  capacity  and  innate  good 
ness.  That  the  savage  instincts  of  some,  as  among  other 
people,  were  never  subdued  is  not  peculiar.  The  slave 
pen  and  auction  block,  the  deadened  hope  from  denied 
reward  of  honest  toil,  the  one-room  cabin  and  the  gun- 
barrel  shanty  of  the  towns  and  cities,  devoid  of  sanita 
tion  and  privacy,  the  dirty  Negro  neighborhood  neglected 
by  police,  fire,  and  health  authorities  and  preyed  upon 
by  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes  of  both  races  have 
left  their  wrecks  in  Negro  life.  Yet  the  soul  of  this 
people  still  vibrates  with  its  pristine  fervor  of  fellow- 
feeling,  with  its  music  and  its  poetry,  with  its  loud  out-- 

1  Coppin,  Levi  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  72-93. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  79 

bursts  of  religious  ecstasy,  and  with  its  free  flow  of 
unsolicited  service,  a  devotion  which  love  alone  lavishes 
and  which  money  cannot  buy. 

Personal  relations  valued  above  property  possession. 
The  first  of  these  characteristic  states  of  mind  of  the 
Negro  in  reaction  to  the  white  world  may  be  termed  a 
philosophy  of  everyday  relations.  From  the  Negro  point 
of  view  the  basis  of  communication  is  that  of  personal 
relations  rather  than  economic  connections.  For  exam 
ple,  the  Negro  worker  often  remains  on  the  job  because 
he  likes  "the  boss"  more  than  because  he  values  the  pay. 
The  sympathetic  understanding  and  treatment  by  the  em 
ployer  determine  his  likes  and  dislikes.  Some  employers 
who  have  recognized  this  fact  have  had  large  suc 
cess  in  the  management  of  Negro  workers.  One 
of  the  officials  of  the  Newport  News  Shipbuilding 
and  Drydock  Company  once  said,  "We  have  our  quar- 
termen  and  foremen  understand  that  one  of  the  first 
requisites  in  dealing  with  these  men  is  the  kindly  word 
and  the  personal  touch  and  interest."  On  another  occa 
sion,  when  a  ship  was  being  launched,  a  number  of  men 
from  other  jobs  were  standing  around  or  upon  the  hull 
of  the  vessel  enjoying  the  sight  as  the  ship  slid  off  the 
ways  into  the  water.  In  reply  to  a  question  about  the 
freedom  of  these  men  to  watch  the  ceremonies,  a  fore 
man  said,  "Oh,  they  are  free  to  do  that  if  they  like ;  these 
men  feel  at  home  here."  For  years  that  shipbuilding 
plant  has  had  excellent  response  from  its  Negro  work 
ers  ;  and  among  the  Negroes  of  the  community,  the  presi 
dent  of  the  Company  is  the  most  popular  white  man. 

This  feeling  about  personal  relations  is  one  of  the  un 
derlying  mental  factors  in  Negro  migration  from  the 
South.  The  economic  call  of  better  wages  in  the  North 
has  been  strong,  but  there  have  been  other  reasons  than 


80  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

purely  economic  opportunity.  Many  left  because  the  old 
personal  relations  between  boss  and  workman,  landlord 
and  tenant,  have  been  disappearing.  Many  Negroes  no 
longer  feel  that  there  are  those  among  their  white  neigh 
bors  who  have  a  personal  interest  in  their  problems  and 
who  will  see  that  they  have  more  opportunities  for  a 
better,  freer  life.  They  have  the  tradition  of  finding  these 
things  in  the  North,  in  "God's  Country,"  as  some  of  them 
call  it.1  Conversations  with  thousands  of  them  in  all 
walks  of  life,  examination  of  their  songs,  their  sayings 
of  wit  and  wisdom,  their  letters,2  all  bear  out  the  fact 
that  this  feeling  for  friendly  personal  relations  is  a  large 
factor  in  their  migration  to  the  North.  They  believe  that 
their  opportunities  for  obtaining  such  interest  are  better. 
Whether  or  not  they  find  it  is  another  matter;  they  be 
lieve  they  will,  and  so  they  move. 

Self -forgetful  loyalty  of  the  Negro.  The  self-forget 
ful  loyalty  to  the  interests  and  cause  of  others  even 
where  it  conflicts  with  self-interest  has  been  shown  re 
peatedly  as  a  characteristic  attitude  of  Negroes.  Expres 
sion  of  this  loyalty  has  been  given  in  many  directions 
through  centuries  of  association,  not  only  with  the  white 
man,  but  with  other  races  and  between  African  tribes. 
In  South  Africa,  natives  must  be  employed  on  terms  that 
allow  periodic  visits  to  their  ancestral  tribes.  Other 
wise,  the  employer  often  finds  his  servants  have  departed 
anyway  because  of  the  call  of  the  native  kraal  and  the 
requirements  of  tribal  ceremony.  Loyalty  to  persons  has 
led  to  the  selection  of  Negroes  for  almost  every  great 
historic  exploring  expedition,  from  the  voyages  of 

1  See  "Four  Open  Letters  to  the  College  Men  of  the  South," 
issued  by  the  University  Race  Commission,  1916-20. 

2  See    collection    of    letters    of    Negro    migrants    published   in 
Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  pp.  291-340,  July,  1919; 
No.  4,  pp.  412-465,  Oct.,  1919. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  81 

Columbus  to  America,  of  Balboa  on  the  Pacific,  to  the 
days  when  Matthew  Henson,  a  Negro,  was  sole  com 
panion  of  Admiral  Peary  on  the  final  lap  of  his  jour 
ney  to  the  North  Pole. 

This  attitude  of  loyalty  has  been  shown  remarkably  in 
the  Negro's  relation  to  the  American  flag,  the  symbol  of 
our  "land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the  brave."  An  ac 
count  of  his  offerings  for  the  liberty  of  our  country  is 
illustrative  of  his  loyalty.  Hundreds  of  Negro  soldiers 
joined  the  Revolutionary  Army  and  suffered  all  the  pri 
vations  of  that  struggle,  including  the  winter  with  Wash 
ington  at  Valley  Forge.  Many  Negroes  made  the  su 
preme  sacrifice  in  the  War  of  1812.  The  story  of  Negro 
heroes  during  the  Civil  War  is  well  known.  The  ac 
counts  of  the  engagements  at  Fort  Picket  and  Fort  Wag 
ner,  at  Petersburg,  at  Fredericksburg,  at  Gettysburg,  and 
elsewhere  would  be  very  incomplete  without  the  story 
of  their  exploits.  In  the  Spanish-American  War  the 
charge  at  El  Caney  and  the  capture  of  its  block  house 
was  one  of  the  strategic  battles  of  that  war.  In  the 
Philippines  and  in  Mexico  at  Carrizal  many  Negro 
troopers  made  records  of  heroism  that  should  be  given 
their  merited  setting  in  our  historical  skies.  Many  dem 
onstrations  of  the  Negro's  loyalty  during  the  World  War 
are  described  in  Chapter  IV. 

The  crowning  feature  of  this  loyalty,  however,  was 
greater  than  the  tasks  performed  and  the  sacrifices  made. 
Many  who  fought  for  American  liberty  in  the  revolu 
tionary  period  were  themselves  slaves  knowing  that  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  secure  the  emanci 
pation  of  their  race.  Negro  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War 
did  have  hopes  that  their  blood  might  wash  away  their 
bondage.  But  by  the  time  of  the  Spanish-American  War 
and  the  World  War,  Negroes  of  America  knew  that  they 


82          THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

had  not  received  security  of  person,  property,  and  liberty, 
and  that  in  other  ways  their  part  in  American  democracy 
was  less  than  that  of  other  citizens.  Mobs  and  lynch 
ing,  miscarriage  of  justice  in  the  courts,  disfranchise- 
ment  at  the  polls,  and  other  restrictions  and  discrimina 
tions  had  driven  deep  into  their  consciousness  the  knowl 
edge  that  as  yet  they  were  not  in  fact  full-fledged  Ameri 
can  citizens. 

With  this  condition  so  plainly  stamped  upon  their 
minds,  yet  more  than  a  third  of  a  million  of  Negroes 
during  these  two  wars  went  forward  in  loyal  devotion  to 
dare  and  to  do  and  to  die  to  preserve  the  very  liberty  and 
democracy  from  the  full  enjoyment  of  which  they  knew 
that  they  and  the  majority  of  their  race  would  be  ex 
cluded  by  their  white  fellow-citizens.  In  the  face  of 
restrictions  and  humiliations,  thousands  of  these  men, 
sometimes  fresh  from  camps  where  discriminations  had 
been  forced  upon  them,  went  "over  the  top"  with  other 
Americans  to  meet  the  enemies  of  their  country.  Many 
of  them  are  sleeping  their  long,  last  sleep  in  the  Philip 
pines  and  on  the  fields  of  France,  that  America  and  the 
world  may  be  "safe  for  democracy."  The  muse  of  his 
tory  will  search  her  archives  for  records  that  match  or 
outstrip  these  annals  of  unselfish  loyalty  of  a  people! 
Why,  then,  can  Justice  withhold  from  the  least  of  these 
full  enjoyment  of  her  protection?  Christian  America 
should  give  the  answer. 

Tolerance  and  optimism  under  oppression.  Another 
characteristic  expression  of  Negro  mind  in  race  relations 
may  be  called  its  attitude  of  patient  tolerance  and  sus 
tained  optimism.  These  are  illustrated  in  Negro  forbear 
ance  under  opposition,  restriction,  and  oppression,  in  his 
method  of  meeting  difficult  problems  and  situations,  and 
in  the  hopefulness  and  loving  kindliness  of  his  folk-songs 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  83 

and  in  his  enthusiasm.  The  tolerance  can  best  be  illus 
trated  by  contrast  with  corresponding  reactions  of  other 
racial  groups  under  similar  conditions.  For  instance,  the 
people  of  southern  Ireland  for  nearly  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  years  have  been  under  conditions  of  restriction  less 
irksome  and  with  less  limitation  upon  liberty  and  prop 
erty  of  the  individual  than  the  Negro  under  American 
slavery  and  partial  freedom  during  more  than  three  hun 
dred  years.  The  difference  in  the  action  of  the  two 
groups  is  too  well  known  to  need  recounting.  The  Irish 
have  argued,  conspired,  and  fought  with  tongue  and  pen 
and  sword  and  fire.  The  Negroes  have  worked  and 
prayed  and  awaited  "times  and  seasons." 

The  American  Indian  confronted  the  same  white  men 
in  America  under  many  conditions  similar  to  those  of 
the  African  Negro.  But  besides  being  a  poor  worker 
under  compulsion  and  succumbing  quickly  to  the  white 
man's  diseases,  the  Indian  often  used  the  tomahawk  and 
scalping  knife.  The  Negroes  who  survived  the  battles  of 
the  slave  raids  in  Africa  and  the  suicide,  disease,  and 
cruelty  of  the  slave  ships,  learned  to  use  the  hoe,  the 
plow,  and  the  white  men's  ways  of  living  and  working. 
They  bowed  their  bodies  to  the  toil,  they  survived,  they 
multiplied,  they  achieved. 

Carping  critics  have  said  that  this  action  of  the  Negro 
was  due  to  a  lack  of  courage.  A  mass  of  evidence  shows 
the  contrary  to  be  true.  For  illustration,  South  African 
Boer  and  Briton  know  the  prowess  and  courage  in  war 
of  the  Zulus.1  The  story  is  told  of  the  cry  of  the  Ashantis 
in  their  disastrous  uprising  against  the  British  who  were 
pushing  them  from  their  native  territory:  "To  go  back 

1  Compare  also  accounts  of  slave  insurrections  in  America 
between  1712  and  1832;  Brawley,  B.  G.,  Social  History  of  the 
American  Negro. 


84  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

is  to  die,  to  go  forward  is  to  die:  we  will  go  forward 
and  die." 

Patient  tolerance  is  shown  also  by  Negroes  in  the  face 
of  difficult  situations.  Anglo-Saxon  nerves  under  similar 
conditions  try  either  to  remove  the  obstacle,  to  go  through 
it,  or  to  smash  either  it  or  themselves  in  the  attempt. 
The  Negro  does  not  have  the  smashing  attitude  of  mind. 
He  tries  to  find  a  path  around  the  obstacle,  to  climb  over 
it,  or  tolerantly  to  sit  down  and  wait  until  time  or  tide 
removes  it.  His  attitude  of  mind  enables  him  "to  labor 
and  to  wait"  and  to  achieve  his  ends  by  "indirect  ap 
proach"  rather  than  by  "feverish  pursuit."  It  has  en 
abled  him  to  succeed  alongside  of  the  white  man,  from 
the  scorching  heat  of  Africa  to  the  Arctic  climate  of 
North  America.  The  Negro  has  worked  and  waited  and 
got  what  he  has  gone  after  from  the  days  before  the 
Egyptian  pyramids  were  built. 

Their  optimism  and  kindliness  shine  through  their 
songs.  Prof.  Work  of  Fisk  University  says  the  "spir 
ituals"  that  "grew"  during  the  generations  under  slavery 
and  serfdom  breathe  hope,  love,  faith,  triumph,  sorrow, 
but  no  word  or  note  of  despair,  malice,  or  revenge.  The 
hopefulness  of  the  slaves  for  freedom  in  the  darkest  days 
is  equaled  by  the  enthusiasm  of  their  descendents  for 
opportunity  to  achieve.  One  Southern  white  man  has 
aptly  expressed  what  many  are  seeing:  "It  is  not  possible 
to  work  with  these  people  and  not  feel  for  them  sym 
pathy,  admiration,  and  respect.  The  sacrifices  they  are 
making  for  the  education  and  enlightenment  of  their  peo 
ple,  their  kindly  disposition,  and  the  sincere  appreciation 
they  show  for  the  smallest  service  rendered  them,  their 
patience,  the  philosophical  way  they  generally  take  dis 
courtesy  and  brusque  treatment,  their  cheerfulness  even 
in  adversity — all  of  these  things  make  it  a  source  of 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  85 

never-ceasing  wonder  to  me  that  for  so  many  years  I 
lived  among  these  people  and  knew  them  not,  that  for 
so  many  years  I  saw  in  them  only  the  faults  that  are 
bred  of  ignorance,  depravity,  and  neglect  and  not  the 
inherent  good  qualities  with  which  our  Almighty  Creator 
has  endowed  them."1 

Rising  tide  of  race  consciousness.  In  addition  to 
these  characteristic  reactions,  the  Negro  has  acquired 
certain  other  feelings  and  attitudes,  especially  during  the 
last  fifty  years,  that  should  be  noted  in  considering  the 
Negro  mind  in  relation  to  American  life.  In  the  first 
place,  there  is  a  rising  tide  of  race  consciousness,  the 
manifestation  of  a  people  becoming  aware  of  its  own  in 
trinsic  worth.  Less  than  a  generation  ago  the  Negro 
physician  in  competition  with  white  doctors  had  uphill 
work  to  secure  patients.  To-day  the  Negro  doctor  has 
almost  an  exclusive  monopoly  because  his  people  prefer 
him.  A  few  years  ago  the  white  agents  of  insurance  com 
panies  boasted  about  the  ease  with  which  they  handled 
Negro  clients  in  competition  with  Negro  companies  and 
their  agents.  To-day,  with  three  Negro  insurance  com 
panies  writing  whole  life  policies  and  two  score  selling  the 
small  industrial  policies,  the  Negro  agent,  if  he  chose, 
might  boast  of  his  advantage  over  his  white  competitor. 
A  large  Southern  insurance  company  catering  to  Negroes 
so  fully  recognized  this  change  in  the  situation  that  it 
is  employing  a  Negro  field  executive,  and  he  is  building 
up  a  Negro  agency  force.  Negro  policemen  are  now  rec 
ognized  as  a  distinct  asset  in  preserving  law  and  order 
in  Negro  neighborhoods. 

This  race  consciousness  has  further  manifested  itself 
in  an  increasing  appreciation  Negroes  have  of  their  pro 
ductions,  Negro  music — folk-songs,  other  songs,  anthems, 

1 L.  M.  Favrot,  quoted  in  Fisk  University  News. 


86  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

and  orchestral  scores  composed  by  Negroes  are  sung, 
played,  and  enjoyed  by  Negroes.  They  are  praising  and 
patronizing  their  players,  playwrights,  and  poets,  and 
are  rehearsing  the  stories  of  their  "unsung  heroes"  to 
their  children.  Negro  scholars  are  now  beginning  to  dig 
from  the  archives  of  history  the  records  of  Negro  culture 
and  civilization  in  Africa  when  Egypt  was  young  and  be 
fore  Babylon  was  built.  Out  of  all  this  are  coming  faith 
in  themselves,  visions  of  their  possibilities,  and  efforts  to 
cultivate  their  unique  powers  and  gifts  to  produce  what 
other  people  may  some  day  gladly  receive. 

With  the  consciousness  of  racial  worth  comes  the 
recognition  of  racial  restrictions  in  the  denial  of  the 
rights  and  opportunities  accorded  other  Americans.  This 
is  producing  resentment  and  the  first  signs  of  spreading 
vindictive  feeling  seen  after  nearly  three  hundred  years 
under  the  yoke  of  American  serfdom.  This  feeling  has 
been  showing  itself  in  a  belief  among  Negroes  that  they 
must  fight  and  contend  to  secure  citizenship  rights.  They 
recite  many  incidents  leading  to  their  belief  when  they 
discuss  their  experience.  To  what  extent  contention  in 
stead  of  cooperation  is  a  necessary  part  of  their  struggle 
for  increasing  American  opportunities  is  yet  to  be  deter 
mined.  It  is  evident,  in  any  case,  that  they  believe  that 
they  are  being  forced  to  fight  and  contend,  and  there  is 
growing  up  in  the  minds  of  many  a  belief  in  the  neces 
sity  and  the  efficacy  of  the  methods  of  contention  and 
fighting  to  attain  the  chances  of  free  Americans.  Here 
issues  the  call  to  those  who  believe  in  brotherly  coopera 
tion  to  reach  out  hands  as  did  the  Man  of  Galilee  to 
even  the  lowliest  and  thus  let  them  understand  that  the 
children  of  God  are  the  peacemakers  among  the  races. 

Increasing  resentment  and  suspicion.  To  paint  only 
the  bright  and  sunny  side,  however,  would  not  give  a 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  87 

complete  picture  of  the  feeling  and  thought  among 
Negroes.  There  are  shadows  in  the  background.  One 
of  these  is  the  Negro's  increasing  distrust  and  suspicion 
of  white  people.  Negroes  generally,  from  field  hands  to 
professors,  from  porters  to  preachers,  have  ceased  to 
speak  their  inner  feelings  and  thoughts  to  white  people, 
except  to  the  few  who,  they  believe,  listen  with  full  sym 
pathy.  Certain  Negro  men  and  women  when  seeking 
favors  or  when  terrorized  by  intimidation  are  led  to  share 
partially  with  white  people  their  real  feelings  and  atti 
tude.  This  dissimulation  is  the  sequel  of  the  suppression 
of  free  speech  and  freedom  of  action.  Daily  commerce 
between  the  races  has  many  of  the  outward  marks  of 
amity  and  peace  because  the  Negro  is  not  militant  minded. 
He  makes  no  direct  attack  upon  those  he  distrusts  or 
fears.  At  the  first  opportunity,  however,  "he  folds  his 
tent  like  the  Arab"  and  as  silently  moves  away. 

Of  late  years,  especially  during  the  World  War,  the 
statements  of  white  people  in  newspapers,  periodicals, 
and  patriotic  addresses  on  the  blessings  of  a  safe  democ 
racy  have  been  weighed  by  Negroes  in  the  light  of  their 
effect  upon  the  restricted  conditions  of  daily  life  sur 
rounding  them.  The  result  is  a  questioning  of  the  sin 
cerity  of  those  professions  and  the  professors.  Edu 
cated  Negro  idealists  are  not  the  only  ones  who  have  been 
inclined  to  regard  these  pronouncements  as  "gestures." 
In  the  Negro  world,  such  opinions  and  feelings  travel 
rapidly  by  means  of  the  "grape-vine  telegraph."  That 
informal,  unorganized,  wireless  system  by  means  of  which 
ideas,  facts,  and  feelings  travel  like  electric  currents  from 
one  Negro  neighborhood  to  another,  still  functions  to-day 
as  in  past  generations.  It  carries  from  the  most  intelli 
gent  the  essence  of  feelings  and  attitudes  from  both  inside 
and  outside  the  Negro  world  to  the  illiterate,  even  to  the 


88  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

most  remote  Negro  cabin  and  community.  The  Negro 
is  a  genius  as  a  listener  and  a  past  master  in  the  ancient 
and  effective  art  of  talking. 

It  is  a  step  backward  for  America,  by  its  pressure  upon 
Negroes,  to  allow  them  to  conclude  that  they  should  adopt 
the  dying  doctrine  of  settlement  of  race  relations  and  in 
terests  by  force,  either  the  brutal  force  of  physical  power 
or  the  inhuman  force  of  economic  and  political  pressure. 
Such  a  step  is  a  failure  to  embrace  the  new  spirit  which 
rises  out  of  the  hearts  of  men,  which  enters  into  economic 
relations,  into  political  and  legal  relations,  into  intellectual 
relations,  and  which  sets  men  free  because  it  baptizes 
them  with  the  consciousness  that  each  man  is  his  brother's 
helper.  It  is  a  challenge  to  Christians  to  show  concretely 
that  comity  and  cooperation  are  the  methods  by  means  of 
which  the  relations  of  men  may  be  adjusted  so  that  all  in 
America  may  have  "life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness."  To  this  "new  emancipation,"  as  expressed  by  the 
author  in  another  place,1  the  Negro  can  make  "a  contribu 
tion  of  the  heart,  of  emotion,  of  passion,  of  song,  of 
music.  Laughter  and  a  light  heart,  patience  and  good 
cheer,  enthusiasm  and  faith — these  are  the  priceless 
things  this  old  world  has  longed  for  and  the  new  age 
will  prize." 

The  Negro  as  a  contributor  to  American  social  con 
sciousness.  America  may  create  the  mental  atmosphere 
in  which  the  Negro  may  go  on  growing  in  social  and 
spiritual  consciousness  and  thus  retain  his  hold  upon  and 
develop  such  traits  of  mind  and  spirit  as  have  been  out 
lined  above,  or  she  may  repress  him  until  he  loses  much 
of  them  in  the  pain  and  sweat  of  a  circumscribed,  half- 
free,  hunted  life.  If  stimulated,  he  may  develop  the 

1  "The  New  Emancipation,"  Southern  Workman,  Oct.,  1920. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  89 

friendly  feelings  and  attitudes  which  will  contribute  to 
the  spirit  of  social  responsibility  being  born  anew  into 
America  and  into  the  world. 

The  development  of  such  social  consciousness  among 
Negroes  may  be  easier  than  among  other  elements  of 
our  varied  population.  Negroes  have  no  past  history  in 
America  of  social  castes  based  upon  birth  or  bank  ac 
count.  All  classes  of  Negroes  are  yet  closely  bound  to 
gether  by  the  bonds  of  common  sufferings.  There  are 
among  them  no  wealthy  capitalists.  The  professional 
classes  are  relatively  small  in  proportion  to  the  total 
Negro  population.  Ministers,  teachers,  doctors,  lawyers, 
and  all  others  numbered  less  than  seventy  thousand  in 
1910  amid  a  population  of  nearly  ten  millions.  They  are, 
however,  very  influential  with  the  entire  people  and  keenly 
conscious  of  their  obligations  to  serve  and  guide  their 
people.  There  are  no  wide  gulfs  of  education,  wealth, 
or  birth  fixed  between  the  lowliest  laborer  and  the  high 
est  leader.  And  the  descriptions  of  their  mental  achieve 
ment  just  recited  show  deep  fellow-feeling,  friendly  atti 
tudes,  and  cooperative  ways  of  acting. 

It  seems  very  practicable,  therefore,  before  any  such 
fixed  differences  of  class  arise  among  Negroes,  to  save 
them  from  many  of  the  shortcomings  of  other  parts  of 
our  nation,  and  so  to  organize  and  to  stimulate  them  that 
the  business  and  professional  classes  may  develop  their 
present  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  wage-earning  classes 
and  spread  a  group  solidarity,  a  feeling  of  social  respon 
sibility,  throughout  the  whole  people.  If  white  America 
in  city  and  country,  North  and  South,  shall  catch  a  vision 
of  the  possible  development  through  neighborliness  and 
justice  extended  to  these  people  and  will  cooperate  with 
Negroes  who  for  three  centuries  have  shown  themselves 
able  to  cooperate,  such  a  development  of  community 


90  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

helpfulness  among  Negroes  in  local  communities  through 
out  many  states  will  undoubtedly  bring  a  distinct  and 
rich  contribution  to  the  larger  life  of  America.  In  addi 
tion  to  the  overflow  of  their  music,  their  poetry,  their 
religious  faith  and  fervor,  their  loyalty,  their  tolerance, 
and  their  cheerfulness  and  humor,  what  an  enrichment 
to  the  higher  thinking  and  feeling  of  the  world  may  be 
bfought  to  pass !  The  deep  emotional  and  mental  fervor 
of  the  Negro  may  show  America  and  the  world  a  new 
meaning  of  Christian  brotherhood. 

Survival  of  superstition  and  backwardness.  An  un 
favorable  symptom  of  Negro  life  in  contact  with  current 
American  opinion  is  the  continuance  of  many  of  the  old 
superstitions  among  the  rank  and  file,  such  as  are  com 
mon  to  other  ignorant  people  in  America  and  elsewhere. 
The  majority  of  these  people,  because  of  the  tardy  de 
velopment  of  public  schools  for  them,  are  still  denied 
the  view  of  the  noble  scroll  of  knowledge.  In  the  past 
half  century  the  Negro  has  struggled  hard  to  free  him 
self  from  ignorance  and  her  twin  offspring — superstition 
and  poverty,  but  to  many,  the  "rabbit  foot"  or  voodoo  bag 
about  the  neck  or  in  the  pocket  is  still  a  good  luck  token 
to  ward  off  enemies  and  disease  and  to  bring  prosperity. 
Malaria  and  typhoid  are  still  attributed  to  exposure  to 
"night  air."  The  paralyzing  fear  of  beliefs  in  ghosts 
and  haunted  houses  and  places  is  still  a  millstone  to 
progress. 

Lack  of  thrift  and  industry  is  also  a  shortcoming  which 
cannot  be  denied.  Where  lie  the  cause  and  the  remedy? 
Mrs.  Hammond,  a  discerning  white  woman,  aptly  says : 1 
"The  two  great  assets  of  any  country  are  the  land  and 
the  people;  and  the  people  necessarily  include  those  en 
gaged  in  agriculture.  ...  In  cities  and  factories  we  are 

1  Hammond,  L.  H.,  In  Black  and  White,  pp.  56,  58  ff. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  91 

finding  that  it  pays,  in  dollars  and  cents,  to  care  for  'the 
(white)  human  end  of  the  machine.'  It  will  pay  in  the 
country,  too,  and  when  the  human  end  is  black.  Christ's 
law  of  brotherhood  is  universal  in  its  workings,  or  it  is 
no  law  at  all." 

The  development  of  racial  self-respect.  Another 
shortcoming  has  frequently  been  placed  at  the  door  of 
the  Negro.  Enemies  and  some  friends  complain  that 
Negroes  show  a  lack  of  belief  in  their  own  race;  that 
apparently  their  highest  ambition  is  to  be  white.  These 
criticisms  apparently  have  basis  in  fact.  They  overlook, 
however,  three  cardinal  conditions  which  Negroes  con 
front.  First,  Negroes  are  surrounded  by  white  people, 
ten  to  one,  whose  idea  of  physical  beauty  is  a  white 
skin,  sharp  features,  and  straight  hair.  By  a  well  known 
principle  of  group  psychology  the  individuals  in  the 
minority  tend  to  conform  to  the  ideas  and  habits  of  the 
majority.  David  Livingstone,  Dan  Crawford,  in  his 
book,  Thinking  Black,  and  many  other  missionaries  have 
testified  that  Africans  regard  Europeans  as  sickly,  un 
natural,  and  ugly,  and  in  some  tribes  the  devil  is  repre 
sented  by  white  images.  Black  skin  and  native  features 
are  to  them  beautiful.  Stanley  said  he  blushed  at  his 
repulsion  to  the  pale  color  of  Europeans  when  he  came 
out  of  the  African  forests  where  he  had  seen  only  dark 
skins  and  the  "richer  bronze  color."  x  It  is  significant 
that  with  the  growing  color  consciousness  among  Ameri 
can  Negroes,  they  are  even  buying  Negro  dolls  for  their 
children  and  are  setting  up  race  ideas  of  beauty  in 
America. 

In  the  second  place,  whoever  has  observed  and  re 
flected  upon  facts  open  to  everyday  inspection  knows 

1  Stanley,  Henry  M.,  Through  the  Dark  Continent,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
462-65. 


92  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

that,  on  the  one  hand,  to  have  a  white  skin  or  to  be 
known  as  a  white  man  or  woman  is  to  have  an  open 
door  to  whatever  ability  and  effort  can  achieve.  On 
the  other  hand,  to  be  dark-skinned  or  to  be  known  as 
a  Negro,  is  to  be  looked  down  upon  and  to  be  dis 
counted  by  those  who  hold  the  key  to  the  American  king 
dom  of  achievement.  This  was  a  barrier  to  advance 
ment  of  Negroes  which  even  such  superior  achievements 
as  those  of  Booker  Washington  did  not  remove.  It  does 
not  take  a  Negro  philosopher  to  conclude  that  the  world 
of  advantage  in  America  is  on  the  side  of  him  who  ap 
proaches  the  appearance  of  the  accepted  white  type. 
Negroes  have  had  many  of  their  attempts  to  set  up  their 
own  standards  blown  to  the  winds  by  derision.  The 
wonder  is  not  that  a  few  of  them  want  to  be  white,  but 
rather,  that  the  race  has  so  persistently  clung  to  racial 
ideas  and  excellencies  through  so  many  generations. 

Finally,  much  of  the  white  man's  notion  of  what  the 
Negro  aspires  to  be  is  either  an  imaginative  white  man's 
construction  of  what  he  conjectures  he  would  strive  for, 
were  he  a  Negro,  or  it  is  what  some  Negro  has  let  the 
white  gather  in  response  to  leading  questions.  The  hu 
man  mind  is  habitually  seeing  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
of  others  in  terms  of  its  own.  The  Negro  is  a  master 
in  responding  to  the  white  man  according  to  the  latter's 
wishes.  The  Negro  already  has  a  feeling  for  his  own 
kind  which  draws  the  thousands  together  and  holds  them, 
just  as  similar  feeling  does  Italians,  Jews,  Greeks,  and 
others.  What  will  give  the  Negro  most  impetus  to  a 
racial  "self -sufficiency"  is  no  longer  to  make  a  white 
skin  the  passport  to  free  American  opportunity,  but  to 
accord  merit  in  a  dark  skin  its  just  rewards. 

What  the  Negro  wants.  There  have  been  among 
the  Negro  people  those  men  of  intelligence  and  vision,  if 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  93 

not  always  of  learning,  who  have  not  bowed  the  knee 
to  Baal,  to  the  popular  superstitions  and  whims,  personal 
lust  of  wealth,  or  the  conflicting  currents  of  interracial 
confusion.  Often  they  have  gathered  up  and  expressed 
the  desires  of  their  people  for  some  of  the  substantial 
things  of  American  life.  These  expressions  of  desire 
come  from  Negroes  of  all  occupations  and  walks  of  life 
• — workers  in  mines  and  factories,  porters  in  stores  and 
hotels,  drivers,  hackmen,  and  trucksters,  farmers,  ten 
ants,  and  farm  hands,  tradesmen,  business  men,  doctors, 
lawyers,  teachers,  housewives,  and  ministers. 

First,  Negroes  have  a  yearning  for  education,  a  desire 
profound  in  its  reach,  appealing  in  its  sacrifices,  and 
tragic  in  its  blighted  opportunities.  The  story  of  their 
struggles  to  get  an  equitable  share  of  public  school  funds, 
their  willingness  to  contribute  out  of  their  poverty  to 
their  private  educational  institutions  and  to  supplement 
what  they  get  from  the  public  treasury  for  school  build 
ings  and  the  lengthening  of  school  terms  is  an  epic  await 
ing  its  Homer.  They  feel  keenly  when  blamed  for  not 
having  what  they  have  never  had  a  chance  to  secure. 
Day-schools,  night-schools,  vacation  schools,  summer 
schools,  and  their  limited  colleges  are  always  over 
crowded.  There  is  a  perennial  cry,  "To  know,  to  know; 
to  do,  to  do;  to  achieve,  to  achieve." 

Second,  Negroes  have  demonstrated,  especially  when 
changes  like  the  World  War  have  pushed  ajar  the  doors 
of  equal  opportunity  to  work  at  just  wages  and  under 
fair  conditions,  that  they  desire  a  chance  to  get  work 
and  to  hold  it  upon  the  same  terms  as  other  workers. 
They  ask  to  be  freed  from  the  system  of  debt  peonage 
fri  its  differing  forms,  both  that  by  which  the  courts  are 
accustomed  to  farm  out  prisoners  to  private  employers 
who  pay  their  fines,  and  that  by  which  workers  cannot 


94  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

leave  one  plantation  for  another  so  long  as  any  debt 
remains  unpaid.  They  ask  for  an  armistice  in  the  tacit 
arrangement  of  lower  wages  for  the  same  work,  restric 
tion  to  advancement  in  occupation,  etc.,  by  means  of 
which  they  are  denied  the  legitimate  fruit  which  other 
men  are  given  for  their  labor. 

Third,  they  want  a  chance  to  play,  too,  when  the  day's 
work  is  done;  to  play  unmolested  by  law  officers  seek 
ing  by  "framed  up"  gaming  bouts  to  fatten  upon  fees 
and  fines,  "arrestin'  fifty  fer  what  one  of  us  done."  They 
want  play  places  where,  in  recreation  and  amusement, 
they  and  their  children  may  stretch  their  legs  as  well 
as  their  spirits  in  wholesome  mirth  and  music.  Like 
other  workers  they  want  sufficient  wages,  reasonable 
hours  and  a  standard  of  living  which  will  leave  mind 
and  body  in  vigor.  They  want  good  houses  in  which  to 
live,  good  roads,  well-paved  streets,  sanitation,  fire  and 
police  protection,  and  other  facilities  which  every  mod 
ern  neighborhood  now  considers  necessary  to  wholesome 
living. 

Fourth,  another  Negro  want  has  probably  been  well 
expressed  by  an  unlettered  Southern  Negro  farmer. 
Speaking  before  a  large  audience  of  Negroes  who  were 
in  conference  with  some  of  their  representative  white 
neighbors,  he  said,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  a  promi 
nent  white  business  man  who  was  the  presiding  officer: 
"And,  sir,  we  wants  to  help  say  who  governs  us."  The 
officer  replied  that  the  liberal-minded  white  men  of  his 
state  proposed  that  their  desire  should  be  satisfied.  In  an 
open  letter  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Louisiana 
in  1898,  Booker  T.  Washington  said:  "Any  law  con 
trolling  the  ballot,  that  is  not  absolutely  just  and  fair 
to  both  races,  will  work  more  permanent  injury  to  the 
whites  than  to  the  blacks.  The  Negro  does  not  object 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  95 

to  an  education  or  property  test,  but  let  the  law  be  so 
clear  that  no  one  clothed  with  state  authority  will  be 
tempted  to  perjure  and  degrade  himself  by  putting  one 
interpretation  upon  it  for  the  white  man  and  another  for 
the  black  man." 

Fifth,  through  painful  years  of  experience  Negroes 
have  come  to  feel  as  one  man  that  they  want  to  be  more 
secure  in  their  persons  and  their  property  and  be  free 
from  the  discriminations  and  restrictions  that  seem  to 
them  so  unnecessary  and  to  have  no  foundation  in  right 
or  reason.  Burnings  and  lynchings  of  innocent  persons 
leave  the  average  Negro  with  an  uneasy  feeling  that  a 
mob  may  perchance  take  him  during  any  excitement. 
Experience  has  taught  many  that  in  a  legal  controversy 
with  a  white  man  he  and  his  property  are  at  great 
disadvantage. 

Sixth,  Negroes  are  beginning  to  ask  for  the  removal 
of  the  habitual  thought  and  action  which  regards  and 
treats  them  as  something  less  than  men  and  women. 
They  do  not  phrase  it  in  just  those  words,  but  their  ac 
tions  speak  louder  than  words.  Experience  with  and 
observation  of  thousands  of  domestic  workers,  unskilled 
and  semiskilled  laborers  in  employment  placement  work 
has  heightened  the  author 's  estimation  of  these  people's 
belief  in  their  own  personality :  their  belief  that  they  are 
ends  in  themselves  and,  along  with  other  people,  should 
have  a  chance  to  eat,  dress,  and  live  and  enjoy  some  of 
the  happiness  which  they  work  to  furnish  to  others.  In 
the  upper  grades  of  intelligence  these  feelings  and  atti 
tudes  express  themselves  in  demands  for  schools,  libra 
ries,  newspapers,  art,  music,  and  many  other  means  of 
self -development. 

Finally,  the  Negro  wishes  to  be  at  peace  with  all  men. 
He  is  a  man  of  peace.    He  has  learned  war  only  when 


96  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

taught  or  when  forced  to  defend  himself.  He  sooner 
submits  to  oppressive  force  than  he  inflicts  it.  And  he 
asks,  as  a  citizen,  to  be  left  free  to  laugh  and  to  sing,  to 
play  and  to  pray,  to  work  and  to  talk,  to  love  and  to  live 
with  other  Americans. 

Growing  dependence  of  Negroes  upon  their  own 
leaders.  The  separation  of  the  races  has  more  and  more 
left  Negroes  in  a  group  isolation.  They  have  thus  been 
thrown  back  upon  their  own  leaders  for  knowledge  and 
guidance.  Negroes,  too,  both  as  individuals  and  in  their 
organizations,  are  beginning  to  insist  upon  the  privilege 
to  choose  their  own  leaders.  They  say  only  leaders  of 
their  choice  can  voice  their  wishes.  Many  of  these  lead 
ers  have  been  without  the  opportunity  for  training  in  the 
best  and  deepest  things  of  our  civilization.  There  is, 
however,  an  increasing  number  of  consecrated  Negro 
men  and  women  of  character  who  have  a  following  of 
their  own  people  and  who  are  serving  them  faithfully. 
There  are,  of  course,  some  without  a  well  developed 
social  conscience,  who  have  more  ability  and  shrewdness 
than  character.  White  men  have  too  frequently  either 
used  them  for  their  own  purposes  or  have  been  deceived 
by  them  as  mediators  between  the  races.  The  Negro 
needs  leaders,  sane  and  unselfish  and  trained  in  all  the 
learning  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Europeans,  and  the  Ameri 
cans,  and  in  all  the  ideals  of  the  Christ.  For  they  not 
only  lead  ten  millions  of  Negro  Americans,  they  not  only 
may  become  ambassadors  to  the  black  millions  of  Africa, 
but  they  are  and  will  be  among  the  mediators  of  the 
white  and  darker  races  in  the  most  difficult  problems 
mankind  has  to  face  in  the  future.  The  Christians  of 
America  have  an  unyielding  obligation  to  open  avenues 
of  training  for  these  leaders  of  the  future. 

The  Negro  and  the  interracial  mind.     The  preced- 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  NEGRO  WORLD  97 

ing  discussion  has  tried  to  set  before  the  view  some  of 
the  habitual  feelings,  attitudes,  and  ways  of  acting  of 
the  Negro  mind.  Connected  with  these  goes  another 
racial  characteristic  of  supreme  significance  in  race  rela 
tions.  The  long  centuries  of  concentration  by  Negroes 
upon  personal  relations  rather  than  property  possessions, 
the  responsiveness  of  their  minds  to  "other  regarding" 
impulses  rather  than  the  "self-regarding,"  have  produced 
temperaments  eminently  ready  to  enter  with  unconscious 
self-forgetfulness  into  the  purposes,  plans,  and  aspira 
tions  of  other  peoples.  Negro  people  readily  subordinate 
their  own  economic  and  material  cultural  advantage  to 
their  pleasure  in  helping  to  advance  other  groups  that 
have  won  their  confidence,  affection,  and  admiration. 
The  rank  and  file  of  Negroes  seem  to  have  come  to  this 
spontaneously.  The  Negro  has  a  self  and  a  soul,  of  the 
depth  and  mystery  of  which  a  white  observer  becomes 
aware  only  once  in  a  great  while.1 

It  was  upon  such  fertile  soil  as  this  that  the  seed  of 
the  missionary  education  of  the  past  sixty  years  with 
its  ideals  of  high  thinking  and  unselfish  living  fell  and 
brought  forth  fruit.  A  type  of  Negro  has  developed 
with  an  interracial  mind  and  soul  passionately  responsive 
to  ideals  beyond  the  bartering  commercialism  of  the  hour. 
Most  of  his  idealistic  missionary  teachers  were  far  ahead 
of  their  times  in  practical  application  of  ideals  of  inter 
racial  brotherhood  and  service.  The  Negro  student  whom 
they  inspired  is  now  trying,  sometimes  with  heart-break 
ing  rebuffs  to  his  sincerity,  to  apply  ideals  imbibed  from 
his  teachers.  He  values  truth  more  than  tact  and  places 
downright  honesty  of  dealing  above  diplomacy.  He 

1  Murphy,  E.  G.,  Basis  of  Ascendency,  pp.  79-81 ;  Stribling, 
T.  S.,  "West  Indian  Nights,"  New  York  Evening  Post,  March 
25  and  31,  1922. 


98  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

eschews  the  oldtime  Negro's  dissimulation  and  the  white 
man's  method  of  "gesturing"  toward  one  thing  when  he 
intends  to  do  another. 

Many  times  this  type  of  Negro  finds  himself  in  the 
Garden,  his  sometime  fellow-workers  gone,  and  the  co 
horts  of  the  enemy  or  pseudo  friends  led  by  some  Judas 
of  his  own  race  coming  with  the  swords  hidden  behind 
fair  words  and  friendly  greetings  that  do  not  disguise 
to  the  penetrating  soul  the  real  purpose  of  the  posse. 
Only  those  who  have  prayed  while  drops  of  sweat  ran 
down,  emerge  from  such  experiences  still  calm  of  mind 
and  possessed  of  soul.  Some  of  them,  like  Peter  of  old, 
curse  and  swear  and  retaliate  with  the  use  of  the  sword. 
Others  either  die  spiritually  in  despair  or,  in  disgust, 
quit  the  quest  for  the  higher  achievements  and  become 
mere  seekers  after  the  lesser  things  offered  by  the  ma 
terial  god,  Money. 

There  is  still  such  spontaneous  altruism  in  the  souls 
of  black  folk,  in  spite  of  the  centuries  of  exploitation, 
that  America  may  have  a  demonstration  of  the  demo 
cratic  cooperation  the  future  holds  for  peoples  and  races 
which  can  share  the  purposes  and  aspiration  each  of  the 
other.  White  Christians  who  long  and  strive  for  that 
better  day  will  find  allies  among  these  dark  skinned  dis 
ciples.  America,  however,  has  to  awake  and  remove  the 
barriers  to  the  development  of  the  interracial  mind  of 
the  Negro  and  the  Caucasian.  The  Spirit  that  became 
flesh  will  then  live  reincarnate  among  them. 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Negro's  Offering  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes 

IF  one  goes  to  Boston  Common  he  sees  there  a  monu 
ment  bearing  the  name  of  Crispus  Attucks,  the  first 
martyr  of  the  American  Revolution.  He  was  a  Negro, 
a  former  slave.  From  the  time  of  the  controversies  with 
the  French  in  Colonial  days  to  the  latest  exploits  of  the 
World  War,  besides  all  other  types  of  devotion  in  Amer 
ica,  Negroes  have  paid  the  supreme  price  of  liberty.  If 
any  one  doubts  the  devotion  to  country  and  the  love  of 
liberty  of  the  Negro,  he  has  only  to  spend  a  few  hours 
in  searching  the  records  of  American  history  to  be  con 
vinced  that  his  doubts  are  ill  -founded  and  that  these 
people,  although  denied  the  full  boon  themselves,  have 
given  themselves  in  full  measure  for  the  justice  and 
liberty  which  America  promises  to  all  who  seek  her 
shores. 

In  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Negroes  were  in 
practically  every  white  regiment  during  the  Revolutionary 
War.  A  Hessian  officer  after  marching  through  Massa 
chusetts  said,  "No  regiment  is  to  be  seen  in  which  there 
are  not  Negroes  in  abundance."  Bancroft,  the  historian, 
says  that  there  were  names  of  men  of  color  on  the 
rolls  of  the  army  at  Cambridge  from  its  first  formation, 
that  Negroes  stood  in  the  ranks  with  the  white  soldiers 
in  the  militia  of  different  colonies,  and  that  black  men 
were  retained  in  the  service  under  the  Continental  Con 
gress. 

Under  General  Washington's  immediate  command,  in 
August,  1778,  there  are  reported  to  have  been  775 
Negroes,  and  it  is  estimated  that  there  were  4,000  in  the 
Continental  Army.  A  company  of  Negroes  fought  at 

99 


ioo  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Peter  Salem,  a  Negro,  when 
other  patriots  stood  dismayed,  fired  the  shot  that  mor 
tally  wounded  Major  Pitcairn,  leader  of  the  British 
forces,  and  thus  turned  the  tide  of  battle.  Solomon  Poor 
during  the  same  engagement  won  the  commendation  of 
the  principal  officers,  who  later  entered  a  petition  in  the 
Massachusetts  Assembly  asking  recognition  for  him.  A 
regiment  of  free  men  of  color  fought  courageously  at  the 
battle  of  Rhode  Island  in  August,  1778.  The  Black 
Legion,  a  contingent  of  soldiers  from  Santo  Domingo, 
by  covering  the  retreat  and  repulsing  the  British  at 
Savannah,  Ga.,  October  9,  1779,  saved  the  American 
and  French  Armies  from  defeat.1 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  War  the 
question  of  using  Negroes  for  service  was  one  of  no 
small  moment.  At  first  the  Continental  Congress  voted 
that  no  slaves  or  free  Negroes  should  be  enlisted.  A 
council  of  war  consisting  of  General  Washington  and 
Major  Generals  Ward,  Lee,  and  Putnam  and  six  Briga 
dier  Generals  after  full  discussion  decided,  October  8, 
1775,  "unanimously  to  reject  all  slaves,  and  by  a  great 
majority  to  reject  Negroes  altogether."  During  the  same 
month  a  committee  met  in  conference  at  Cambridge  to 
consider  the  reorganization  of  the  army.  This  committee 
decided  that  free  Negroes  and  slaves  were  to  be  "re 
jected  altogether." 

The  action  of  the  Earl  of  Dunmore,  Governor  General 
of  Virginia,  however,  in  a  proclamation  of  November  7, 
1775,  offering  freedom  to  all  indentured  servants, 
Negroes,  and  others  able  and  willing  to  bear  arms  if 
they  should  join  His  Majesty's  troops,  caused  the 

1  Williams,  G.  W.,  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America, 
(2  vols.)  is  the  main  source  of  facts  for  the  first  ten  pages  of 
this  chapter,  except  where  others  are  cited. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         101 

Colonial  leaders  to  change  their  policy.  Alarmed  at  the 
British  action,  and  without  waiting  for  the  action  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  on  December  30,  1775,  General 
Washington  issued  general  orders  authorizing  the  enlist 
ment  of  free  Negroes.  The  Continental  Congress  took 
no  further  action  when  notified  by  General  Washington 
of  what  he  had  done.  This  new  policy  met  immediate 
response  from  Negroes. 

The  attitude  of  the  Southern  colonists  changed.  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  sent  Colonel  Laurens  to  John  Jay,  Presi 
dent  of  the  Continental  Congress,  with  a  letter  dated 
March  14,  1779,  urging  the  organization  of  an  army  of 
Negro  slaves  in  South  Carolina,  who  should  be  emanci 
pated  upon  completion  of  their  service.  He  said,  "It 
should  be  considered  that  if  we  do  not  make  use  of 
them  in  this  way,  the  enemy  probably  will,  and  that  the 
best  way  to  counteract  the  temptations  they  hold  out  will 
be  to  offer  them  ourselves."  1  Free  Negroes  were  al 
lowed  to  enlist  in  Virginia  regiments,  and  the  temptation 
to  slaves  to  declare  themselves  freedmen  in  order  to 
enlist  was  so  great  that  the  Virginia  legislature  passed  a 
law  prohibiting  recruiting  officers  from  enrolling  Negroes 
without  certificates  of  freedom.  James  Armistead,  a 
slave,  was  a  scout  for  Lafayette  in  his  Virginia  cam 
paign.  Along  with  their  white  compatriots  these  black 
heroes  fought  and  died  for  American  independence, 
showing  heroism  at  Bunker  Hill,  valor  at  Brandywine, 
fortitude  at  Valley  Forge,  and  courage,  enthusiasm,  and 
endurance  in  every  engagement  down  to  Saratoga  and 
Yorktown,  where  Cornwallis  surrendered.  Can  justice 
in  America  deny  their  descendants  the  full  meed  of  their 
sacrifices  ? 

1  Johnson,  E.  A.,  School  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America, 
pp.  58-60. 


102  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

In  the  conflict  of  1812.  In  the  War  of  1812  Negroes 
were  used  in  both  the  land  and  naval  forces.  The 
achievements  of  the  Negro  in  the  Revolutionary  War 
and  the  lack  of  troops  left  no  room  for  debate  as  to  the 
utility  of  Negro  troops  in  this  second  encounter.  Com 
mander  Nathaniel  Shaler  praised  the  heroism  of  black 
tars  on  his  armed  schooner,  and  Perry  praised  their 
heroism  on  Lake  Erie.  New  York  passed  an  act  au 
thorizing  the  raising  of  two  regiments  of  Negro  troops 
October  24,  1814,  and  2,000  men  of  color  were  enlisted 
and  sent  to  the  army  at  Brackett's  Harbor.  The  most 
notable  service  was  performed  by  Negro  troops  under 
Major  General  Andrew  Jackson  at  New  Orleans.  Jack 
son  commanded  the  Eighth  Military  District  with  head 
quarters  at  Mobile,  Alabama.  He  issued  an  appeal  to 
the  free  Negro  inhabitants,  confessing  a  mistaken  policy 
in  heretofore  depriving  them  of  participation  in  the 
"glorious  struggle  for  national  rights  in  which  our  coun 
try  is  engaged."  He  promised  the  same  bounty  in  money 
and  land  as  to  white  soldiers,  and  that  while  he  would 
select  white  commissioned  officers  for  them,  non-com 
missioned  officers  would  be  chosen  from  their  ranks. 

On  Sunday,  December  18,  1814,  just  before  the  Battle 
of  New  Orleans,  General  Jackson  reviewed  his  Negro 
contingent  and  delivered  to  them  an  address  which  is 
such  a  remarkable  statement  that  it  demands  full  quota 
tion  here: 

"To  the  men  of  color : — Soldiers !  From  the  shores  of 
Mobile  I  collected  you  to  arms ;  I  invited  you  to  share 
in  the  perils  and  to  divide  the  glory  of  your  white  coun 
trymen.  I  expected  much  from  you,  for  I  was  not  un 
informed  of  those  qualities  which  must  render  you  so 
formidable  to  an  invading  foe.  I  knew  that  you  could 
endure  hunger  and  thirst  and  all  the  hardships  of  war. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         103 

I  knew  that  you  loved  the  land  of  your  nativity,  and 
that,  like  ourselves,  you  had  to  defend  all  that  is  most 
dear  to  man.  But  you  surpass  my  hopes.  I  have  found 
in  you,  united  to  these  qualities,  that  noble  enthusiasm 
which  impels  to  great  deeds. 

"Soldiers !  The  President  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  informed  of  your  conduct  on  the  present  occasion, 
and  the  voice  of  the  representatives  of  the  American 
nation  shall  applaud  your  valor  as  your  general  now 
praises  your  ardor.  The  enemy  is  near.  His  sails  cover 
the  lakes.  But  the  brave  are  united;  and  if  he  finds  us 
contending  among  ourselves,  it  will  be  for  the  prize  of 
valor  and  fame,  its  noblest  reward." 

In  the  Civil  War.  The  service  of  the  Negroes  in  this 
struggle  is  so  well  known  that  only  a  brief  statement  is 
necessary.  It  is  estimated  that  more  than  180,000  Negro 
soldiers  were  enlisted  in  the  Union  Army  and  that  thou 
sands  of  slaves  and  some  free  Negroes  were  drafted  as 
non-combatants  on  the  Confederate  side,  with  a  promise 
of  freedom  to  those  slaves  who  survived.  The  Confed 
erate  Congress  passed  a  law  February  7,  1864,  requiring 
that  all  male  free  Negroes  and  other  persons  of  color 
then  resident  in  the  Confederate  States,  between  the  ages 
of  1 8  and  50,  except  those  who  were  free  under  the 
treaty  of  Paris,  1803,  and  under  the  treaty  of  Spain,  1819, 
should  be  liable  for  duty  in  the  army  in  connection  with 
building  of  military  defenses,  work  upon  fortifications, 
in  military  hospitals,  and  in  other  work.  Provision  was 
made  in  the  law  for  exemption  by  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  such  as  he  thought  needed  it  on  grounds  of  "justice, 
equity,  or  necessity."  The  use  of  Negroes  as  soldiers, 
however,  was  debated  by  Confederate  leaders.  Finally, 
on  March  13,  1865,  the  Confederate  Congress  passed  an 
Act  to  use  Negroes  "to  perform  military  service  in  what 
ever  capacity  he  (the  President)  may  direct."  But  the 


104  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

close  of  the  conflict  came  before  the  plan  could  be  car 
ried  out.1 

During  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  President  Lin 
coln  declined  to  use  Negroes  as  soldiers.  He  held  to  this 
policy  under  strong  pressure.  General  Butler  was  about 
the  first  to  use  Negro  troops,  drawn  from  the  free 
Negroes  of  New  Orleans  who  volunteered.  There  were 
many  colored  Creoles  in  New  Orleans  whose  forbears 
had  been  free.  Some  were  descendants  of  soldiers  who 
had  fought  under  General  Andrew  Jackson.  Some  of 
the  officers  of  these  militiamen  accepted  an  invitation  to 
visit  the  General.  The  result  was  that  they  readily  agreed 
to  form  regiments  of  free  Negroes.  Two  weeks  later, 
August  22,  1862,  when  General  Butler  went  down  to  the 
place  where  he  had  ordered  the  troops  to  gather,  a  unique 
sight  struck  his  eyes:  "2,000  men  ready  to  enlist  as  re 
cruits,  not  a  man  of  them  who  had  not  a  white  'biled 
shirt'  on."  2  In  less  than  a  month's  time,  a  full  regiment 
of  free  Negroes  entered  the  army  of  the  United  States; 
another  was  accepted  October  12,  1862,  a  third  regiment 
of  infantry,  November  24,  and  a  regiment  of  heavy  artil 
lery  was  mustered  in  November  29,  1862.  They  were 
called  the  First,  Second,  and  Third  Infantry  Corps 
d'Afrique,  respectively,  and  the  First  Regiment  Heavy 
Artillery  Corps  d'Afrique. 

The  state  of  Kansas,  however,  organized  the  first 
regiment  of  Northern  Negro  troops.  The  first  Kansas 
colored  volunteers  were  mustered  in  January  4,  1863,  at 
Fort  Scott.  The  54th  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Infantry 
was  completed  April  12  of  that  year.  Frederick  Douglass 


1  Wesley,  Charles  H.,  "Employment  of  Negroes  as  Soldiers  in 
the  Confederate  Army,"  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  IV,  No. 
3,  July,  1919. 

2  Washington,  Booker  T.,  Story  of  the  Negro,  Vol.  I,  p.  322. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         105 

and  a  number  of  other  prominent  colored  men  assisted 
in  the  recruiting  work. 

The  raising  of  the  first  regiments  was  not  without 
much  misgiving  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  friends  of 
the  Negro,  and  not  without  opposition  on  the  part  of 
those  who  did  not  favor  the  use  of  Negroes  as  soldiers. 
The  experiment  was  started,  however,  and  theoretical  ob 
jections  had  to  await  the  test  of  experience.  The  first 
large  experience  came  with  the  South  Carolina  Negro 
volunteers  under  the  noted  Colonel  Higginson  who  was 
sent  upon  an  expedition  to  occupy  Jacksonville,  Florida. 
Some  of  the  hostile  newspapers  prophesied  that  the 
Negro  troops  would  burn  the  city  and  outrage  the  in 
habitants.  They  landed  quietly,  however,  marched 
through  the  city  streets  in  perfect  order,  committed  no 
excesses  of  any  kind.  In  writing  of  his  Florida  expedi 
tion  Colonel  Higginson  said,  "In  every  instance  my 
troops  came  off  with  unblemished  honor  and  undisputed 
triumph." 

The  Negro  troops  saw  their  first  real  fighting  at  the 
battle  of  Fort  Hudson,  May  27,  1863.  These  troops  were 
the  first  and  second  Louisiana  Native  Guards,  recruited 
under  General  Butler.  After  an  all  night's  march  and  an 
hour's  rest  they  were  ordered  to  take  a  place  on  the  right 
of  the  charging  line.  From  early  morning  until  three- 
thirty  in  the  afternoon,  amid  hideous  carnage,  they 
charged  six  or  seven  times  in  trying  to  take  a  fortified 
bluff  beyond  a  deep  ravine.  A  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Times,  on  the  ground,  said :  "The  deeds  of  heroism 
performed  by  these  colored  men  were  such  as  the  proud 
est  white  men  might  emulate.  Their  colors  were  torn  to 
pieces  by  shots  and  literally  bespattered  with  blood  and 
brain." 

The  teachable  nature  of  the  Negro,  his  endurance,  his 


io6  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

hopefulness,  his  enthusiasm,  his  songs  when  marching, 
his  quick  imitative  powers  in  learning  military  drill  and 
discipline,  and  his  cheerfulness,  which  knew  no  discour 
agement,  made  him  an  asset.  In  less  than  six  months 
after  the  first  regiments  were  mustered  in,  he  had  taken 
part  in  five  engagements  and,  as  the  New  York  Times 
said,  "In  some  instances  they  acted  with  distinguished 
bravery,  and  in  all  they  acted  as  well  as  could  be  expected 
of  raw  troops."  The  effect  upon  the  country  of  such 
conduct  of  Negro  troops  in  these  engagements  was  so 
electrical  that  it  settled  the  question  of  ability  as  a  soldier 
and  of  their  employment  in  the  Union  Army. 

Another  illustration  will  indicate  the  character  of  their 
services  for  liberty.  The  action  of  the  54th  Massa 
chusetts  at  Fort  Wagner  has  been  recounted  in  song  and 
story.  After  two  days'  marching  through  marshes,  swol 
len  streams,  rain  and  darkness,  with  one  day's  rest,  the 
regiment  was  thrown  into  line.  As  darkness  fell  on  the 
1 8th  of  July,  1863,  they  were  ordered  to  make  double 
quick  time  in  the  charge  upon  the  fort.  They  planted 
their  flag  upon  the  ramparts,  held  it  there  half  an  hour, 
and  with  their  beloved  Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw  cold 
in  death  upon  the  field,  retired  only  when  relieved  by  a 
second  division.  Corporal  Carney,  the  Negro  color 
bearer,  though  wounded  severely  in  the  thigh  and  shoul 
ders,  held  his  flag  upon  the  parapet  until  his  regiment 
was  relieved.  It  was  after  this  exploit  that  he  made 
the  famous  remark,  when  returning  to  the  hospital  nearly 
exhausted  from  the  loss  of  blood,  "Boys,  the  old  flag 
never  touched  the  ground."  With  similar  heroism  and 
enthusiasm,  from  Petersburg  and  Nashville,  down  to  the 
end  of  the  struggle,  Negro  soldiers  bore  the  burden  in 
the  heat  of  the  battle  and  demonstrated  by  their  sacri 
fices  that  they  and  theirs  deserved  a  place  as  free  citizens. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         107 

In  the  Spanish-American  War.  Among  the  first 
troops  who  went  forward  in  the  Spanish-American  War 
in  1898,  were  the  famous  Ninth  and  Tenth  Cavalry  and 
the  Twenty-fourth  and  Twenty-fifth  Infantries,  all  Negro 
troops  of  the  Regular  Army.  The  Tenth  Cavalry  dis 
tinguished  itself  at  the  first  battle  in  Cuba  by  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  his  Rough  Riders. 
The  Colonel  publicly  expressed  his  appreciation  of  their 
valor.  In  this  famous  battle  of  El  Caney  the  Negro 
troops,  as  they  went  up  the  hill  to  the  Spanish  block 
house,  sang,  "There'll  be  a  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town 
To-night."  A  Negro  officer  of  the  Twenty-fourth  In 
fantry  was  the  first  man  to  enter  the  blockhouse.  It  was 
he  who  hauled  down  the  Spanish  flag. 

Colonel  Leonard  Wood,  when  Chief  of  Staff  in  1914, 
wrote:  "I  served  with  the  Tenth  Cavalry  years  ago  as 
a  junior  officer,  and  have  had  it  with  me  in  various  parts 
of  the  world,  including  the  United  States,  Cuba,  and  the 
Philippines  .  .  .  the  discipline  and  general  performance 
of  duty  by  these  regiments  have  been  very  creditable."  * 
Besides  those  of  the  regular  army,  there  were  a  number 
of  volunteer  regiments  from  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other 
states.  Following  the  Spanish-American  War,  two  col 
ored  regiments  with  colored  captains  and  lieutenants, 
went  to  the  Philippines  and  did  valiant  service. 

Negro  citizenship.  By  the  time  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War,  the  experience  of  a  generation  of  freed- 
men  had  thrown  the  light  of  the  years  upon  the  question 
of  Negro  citizenship.  Before  the  outbreak  of  the  World 
War  the  country  was  beginning  to  be  fully  conscious  of 
the  national  problem  in  race  relations.  Therefore,  before 
entering  the  new  period  ushered  in  by  the  World  War, 

1From  letter  quoted  in  The  Black  Soldier  by  Mary  Curtis, 
P.  34- 


io8  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  question  of  the  citizenship  of  the  Negro  may  well 
be  reviewed  as  it  then  stood. 

Under  Federal  laws  any  distinction  defined  on  the  basis 
of  race  is  also  a  legal  discrimination  because  Federal  law 
theoretically  knows  no  race,  color,  or  creed.  In  the 
words  of  the  Supreme  Court,1  "The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  its  present  form  forbids,  so  far  as  civil 
and  political  rights  are  concerned,  discrimination  by  the 
general  government,  or  by  the  states,  against  any  citizen 
because  of  his  race.  All  citizens  are  equal  before  the 
law.  The  guarantees  of  life,  liberty,  and  property  are 
for  all  persons  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States,  or  of  any  state,  without  discrimination  against 
any  because  of  their  race." 

The  civic  status  of  the  Negro  has  gradually  grown 
up  through  the  years.  It  has  been  a  long,  long  way  from 
the  status  of  the  slave  to  that  of  freedman.  The  old 
legal  status  of  the  Negro  slave  can  probably  be  best  illus 
trated  by  the  celebrated  case  of  Dred  Scott.  It  was 
Scott's  contention  that  Sanford,  his  Missouri  master, 
could  not  restrain  him  as  a  slave  in  Missouri  when  he  at 
tempted  to  return  to  the  free  soil  of  Illinois.  In  deciding 
the  case,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  declared  that 
persons  of  African  descent  were  not  constituent  members 
of  the  Sovereign  people  and  "that  they  are  not  included, 
and  were  not  intended  to  be  included,  under  the  word 
'Citizen'  in  the  Constitution  and  can  therefore  claim  none 
of  the  rights  and  privileges  which  that  instrument  pro 
vides  for  and  secures  to  citizens  of  the  United  States." 

The  Court  held  further  that  citizenship  conferred  by 
states  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  did  not  carry 
with  it  citizenship  in  the  United  States  or  any  of  the 
rights,  privileges,  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  other 

1  Case  of  Strauder  vs.  West  Virginia,  100  U.  S.  103. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         109 

states,  should  a  person  move  from  one  state  to  another. 
Some  of  the  Justices  of  the  Court  both  dissented  from 
the  law  and  challenged  the  facts  of  the  majority  opinion 
of  the  Court;  but  the  majority  prevailed.  This  decision 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  was  soon  followed 
by  fugitive  slave  laws  which  permitted  slave  owners  to 
go  into  free  territory,  claim  persons  as  their  runaway 
slaves,  and  carry  them  back  to  slave  territory.  With 
some  alterations  of  details  this  was  the  status  of  the 
Negro  slave  until  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

Free  persons  of  color  in  slave  states  were  better  off 
to  a  limited  extent  than  slaves.  By  1860,  there  were 
434,000  free  Negroes  in  the  United  States,  260,000  of 
them  in  the  South.  They  were  exempt  from  involun 
tary  servitude.  They  could  go  freely  from  place  to  place 
within  most  states,  provided  they  had  their  free  papers 
to  present  to  any  one  who  questioned  them.  But  the 
restrictions  increased  following  the  Nat  Turner  insurrec 
tion  in  1832,  particularly  as  to  free  assemblage.  The 
free  person  of  color  had  more  legal  right  of  protection 
of  his  person  from  injury  under  the  law  than  a  slave 
had.  In  practise,  however,  the  slave  had  protection 
through  his  master.  Free  Negroes  in  Northern  states 
gradually  achieved  the  right  to  hold  property,  to  move 
freely  from  place  to  place,  to  protection  in  the  courts  and, 
in  some  states,  to  free  exercise  of  the  franchise. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  the  thirteenth, 
fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  amendments  to  the  Federal  Con 
stitution  made  enslavement  no  longer  legal,  giving  the 
Negro  legal  rights  as  a  citizen  and  making  him  legally 
a  man  instead  of  a  thing.  In  practical  operation,  how 
ever,  it  has  been  a  long  process  to  get  the  old  habits  of 
daily  life  changed  and  to  introduce  the  legal  principles 
into  the  practises  of  everyday  relations. 


no         THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Friction  due  to  exercise  of  the  franchise.  The  exer 
cise  of  the  franchise  guaranteed  by  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment  has  been  one  of  the  factors  of  the  Negro's  status 
as  a  citizen  which  has  brought  the  most  discussion,  con 
troversy,  and  friction.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  mis 
takes  of  the  past,  we  cannot  avoid  facing  the  conditions 
of  the  present  which  are  laden  with  the  issues  of  the 
future.  A  leading  Southerner  has  said  in  print:  "We  are 
agreed  that  there  ought  to  be  a  limit  on  the  right  to 
vote  and  hold  office;  but  we  ought  also  to  agree  that 
whatever  limitation  is  imposed  should  appeal  to  the 
sense  of  exact  justice  and  fairness  to  all  the  persons 
involved."  The  most  thoughtful  citizens  have  expressed 
the  view  that  any  control  of  the  franchise  which  does 
not  administer  its  exercise  justly  without  regard  to  race 
or  sex  will  do  more  injury  to  the  white  citizens  than  to 
the  black  ones.  Taxation  without  representation  is  as 
dangerous  and  as  unjust  now  as  ever. 

The  relation  of  the  Negro  to  the  constabulary  and  the 
courts  is  also  vital  for  all.  The  ignorant,  the  weak,  and 
thoughtless  of  any  national  or  racial  group  in  America 
probably  suffers  much  injustice  when  in  the  hands  of  the 
average  police  and  lower  courts.  To  this  is  added,  in 
the  case  of  the  Negro,  suspicion  which  falls  upon  him 
because  of  his  race.  A  murder,  an  assault,  a  burglary, 
or  a  robbery  is  committed  in  a  community.  A  general 
presumption  is  that  some  one  from  among  the  Negroes 
did  it.  Upon  the  slightest  suspicion  a  Negro  may  be 
arrested,  lodged  in  jail,  and,  if  he  lacks  influential  white 
friends  or  the  means  to  employ  an  able  lawyer, 
held  for  weeks  and  months.1  He  is  sometimes  taken 
and  lynched  without  trial.  The  fee  system,  with  its  jus- 

1  Hammond,  L.  H.,  In  Black  and  White,  pp.  46-52. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         in 

tices  of  the  peace,  petty  magistrates,  and  constables,  de 
pendent  for  their  pay  upon  their  part  of  the  fines  and 
fees  levied  upon  defendants,  have  been  a  source  of  con 
tinued  abuse  for  many  years  in  many  communities. 
Added  to  this  has  been  a  widespread  custom  of  handing 
over  those  convicted  in  trials  before  such  petty  courts,  to 
planters,  farmers,  and  others  who  pay  their  fines  and 
court  costs.  They  are  allowed  to  hold  the  prisoners  until 
they  "work  out"  the  amount  paid  for  them  often  with  the 
addition  of  the  "keep"  of  the  prisoner.  Such  a  system 
leads  to  peonage  and  other  evils. 

In  some  of  the  states  the  right  of  jury  service  irrespec 
tive  of  race  is  accorded  citizens,  but  in  others  the  ques 
tion  had  not  been  settled  in  practise.  In  1879,  the  right 
of  Negro  male  citizens  to  serve  on  juries  was  fully  estab 
lished  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  A 
Negro  named  Strauder  appealed  for  the  removal  of  his 
case  to  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  been  denied  a  trial  by  a  freely  chosen  jury 
of  his  peers,  because  he  had  been  convicted  of  murder 
by  a  jury  from  which  colored  men  had  been  excluded. 
In  deciding  this  case  in  favor  of  Strauder,  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  held  that  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  secures  among  other  civil  rights  to  colored 
persons  charged  with  criminal  offenses  an  impartial  trial 
by  jurors  indifferently  selected  without  discrimination 
against  such  jurors  because  of  their  color.  The  court 
held: 

"That  where  the  state  statute  secures  to  every  white 
man  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  selected  from,  and  with 
out  discrimination  against,  his  race,  and  at  the  same  time 
permits  or  requires  such  discrimination  against  the  col 
ored  man  because  of  his  race,  the  latter  is  not  equally 
protected  by  law  with  the  former.  .  .  . 


112  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

"The  guarantees  of  life,  liberty,  and  property  are  for 
all  persons  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States, 
or  of  any  state,  without  discrimination  against  any  be 
cause  of  their  race.  These  guarantees,  when  their  viola 
tion  is  properly  presented  in  the  regular  course  of  pro 
ceedings,  must  be  enforced  in  the  courts,  both  of  the 
nation  and  of  the  state,  without  reference  to  considera 
tions  based  upon  race."  1 

Another  matter  of  transcending  civic  importance  to 
every  citizen  is  that  of  mob  violence.  This  evil  has 
grasped  victims  of  other  races  in  its  clutches  and  has 
marked  Negroes  for  particular  attention.  Mobs  and  lynch- 
ings,  with  the  development  of  race  riots,  in  later  years, 
constitute  a  very  great  danger  to  all  American  life.  In 
thirty  years  ending  in  1920,  691  white  men  and  n  white 
women,  2,472  Negro  men  and  50  Negro  women  were 
lynched  without  trial.  Less  than  one  fifth  of  the  Negro 
men  were  not  even  under  suspicion  of  any  kind  of  crime 
against  women.  Many  of  the  Negroes  were  not  charged 
with  any  crime  at  all.  In  a  magazine  article  in  1912, 
Booker  T.  Washington  said :  2  "In  short,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  colored  persons  lynched 
are  innocent.  ...  In  other  cases  it  is  known  that  where 
Negroes  have  committed  crimes,  innocent  men  have  been 
lynched,  and  the  guilty  ones  have  escaped  and  gone  on 
committing  more  crimes."  The  very  foundations  of  law 
and  government  are  challenged  by  this  evil  which  makes 
the  life  and  limb  of  Negro  citizens  unsafe.  With  such  a 
citizenship  status,  the  Negro  arrived  at  the  period  of  the 
World  War. 


1  Strauder  vs.  West  Virginia,  100  U.  S.  303. 

2  Quoted  in  Scott  and  Stowe,  Booker  T.  Washington,  Builder 
of  a  Civilization,  pp.  92-93. 


Underwood. 


NEGRO  REGIMENT,  RETURNING  FROM  FRANCE,  MARCHING  ON  FIFTH 
AVENUE,   NEW  YORK  CITY 

The  readiness  and  promptness  of  the  Negro's  response  to  the 
call  of  liis  country  showed  that  he  was  filled  with  the  same  feel 
ing  of  patriotism  and  was  ready  to  make  the  same  sacrifices  as 
his  white  fellow-citizens  in  the  cause  of  world  freedom. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         113 

In  the  World  War.  The  story  of  the  Negro  in  the 
army  during  the  World  War  may  be  described  first  in 
four  phases  besides  the  fighting  to  which  Negroes  con 
tributed  so  largely;  namely,  Negro  music  in  the  camps 
and  in  the  army ;  the  remarkable  work  done  by  the  .Negro 
labor  battalions,  particularly  stevedore  battalions,  who 
were  the  marvel  of  the  French  in  their  loading  and  un 
loading  of  vessels  ;  the  cooperation  of  Negro  agricultural 
and  industrial  workers  at  home  in  what  was  called  the 
fourth  line  of  defense;  and  the  active  participation  in 
Red  Cross  work,  Food  Conservation  and  Health  Cam 
paigns,  and  in  the  buying  of  Liberty  Bonds. 

Non-combatant  service.  Wherever  the  Negro  has 
gone,  he  has  carried  his  music  and  his  song.  The  plain 
tive  melody  and  romping  rhythm,  the  simple  harmony 
and  rollicking,  syncopated  "jazz"  gained  the  attention 
of  soldiers,  black  and  white,  everywhere,  and  set  many  a 
regiment  moving  its  feet,  exercising  its  lungs,  and  en 
livening  its  spirit.  The  Negro  folk-songs,  the  war  songs, 
and  the  Negro  band  set  many  a  community  and  camp 
agog  with  excitement.  It  is  said  that  some  of  the  high 
est  officials  of  the  French  Army  and  government  eagerly 
listened  to  Negro  "jazz"  music.  Especially  noteworthy 
in  this  connection  was  the  band  of  Lieutenant  James 
Reese  Europe,  a  part  of  the  369th  Infantry,  the  "Old 
Fifteenth  New  York."  As  soon  as  the  regiment  landed 
at  Brest,  France,  Europe's  band  began  to  play  and  the 
populace  began  to  dance.  From  there,  wherever  the  band 
went  during  its  stay  in  France,  it  gave  joy  and  amuse 
ment  to  all  who  heard  it.  So  popular  was  such  music 
that  some  one  coined  the  phrase,  "Jazz  won  the  war." 
The  singing  of  Negro  songs  by  Sergeant  Noble  Sissle, 
the  drum  major  of  the  band,  attracted  attention  on  every 


H4  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

occasion,  and  he  was  effective  in  helping  to  interpret 
the  music  to  French  audiences.1 

The  first  Negro  stevedore  battalion  went  to  France  in 
June,  1917,  and  before  the  end  of  the  War  there  were 
about  50,000  in  this  branch  of  the  army.  They  received 
the  usual  routine  training  of  infantry.  At  the  five  French 
ports,  Brest,  St.  Nazaire,  Bordeaux,  Havre,  and  Mar 
seilles,  the  Negro  stevedore  regiments,  working  often 
amid  the  mud  and  the  rain,  sometimes  in  twenty-four 
hour  shifts,  laughing,  frolicking,  and  singing  all  the  time, 
became  a  sight  for  all  who  beheld  them  and  won  the  ad 
miration  and  praise  of  all  who  appreciated  that  they  were 
holding  the  "third  line  of  defense"  behind  the  men  in  the 
trenches. 

The  story  is  told  that  when  a  French  officer  was 
asked  about  the  unloading  of  vessels  at  Bordeaux,  he 
estimated  the  amount  of  time  in  weeks.  The  American 
army,  however,  with  its  labor  battalions  and  its  steve 
dores  working  in  shifts,  night  and  day,  built  extensive 
docks  and  often  unloaded  vessels  in  from  thirty-six  to 
forty-eight  hours.  One  observer  reported  that  a  com 
pany  of  Negro  stevedores  unloaded  1,200  tons  of  flour 
in  nine  and  a  half  hours,  setting  a  record  for  the  A.E.F. ; 
that  the  same  group  of  stevedores  for  five  days  dis 
charged  an  average  of  2,000  tons  a  day  for  one  shift  of 
workers.  Mr.  Ralph  Tyler,  who  was  in  France  repre 
senting  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  at  the 
time,  wrote  that  in  September,  1918,  there  were  handled 
at  the  American  base  ports  in  France  767,648  tons,  or  a 
daily  average  of  25,588  tons,  an  increase  of  nearly  ten 
per  cent  over  August,  and  that  the  larger  part  of  this 

1  Scott,  E.  J.,  History  of  the  Negro  in  the  World  War,  pp.  300- 
310.  This  work  furnished  considerable  documentary  data  for  this 
account  of  the  Negro  in  the  army  during  the  World  War. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         115 

material  was  handled  by  Negro  stevedores.  He  remarked 
that  "one  who  sees  the  (Negro)  stevedores  work  notes 
with  what  rapidity  and  cheerfulness  they  work  and  what 
a  very  important  cog  they  are  in  the  war  machinery."  * 
Through  all  the  long  hours  of  toil  the  Negro  stevedores 
went  about  their  work  with  cheerfulness,  with  jokes  and 
laughter,  with  singing  and  music  and  with  all  the  high 
enthusiasm  of  Negro  disposition. 

An  account  of  the  non-combatant  service  would  be  in 
complete  without  a  statement  about  the  unselfish,  de 
voted,  but  far-reaching  work  of  the  Negro  men  and 
women  who  went  overseas  in  the  service  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
to  give  entertainment  and  encouragement  and  physical 
comfort  to  Negro  soldiers,  to  inspire  them  with  religious 
and  patriotic  guidance,  and  thus  to  keep  up  their  morale. 
This  organization  maintained  about  fifty-five  centers  at 
various  cantonments  in  the  United  States.  Three  hun 
dred  and  fourteen  Negro  Secretaries  served  at  home  and 
sixty,  including  five  women,  went  overseas.  Their  work 
comprised  religious  meetings,  Bible  classes,  educational 
classes,  in  which  thousands  of  illiterate  recruits  learned 
to  read  and  write,  athletic  activities,  moving  picture  and 
social  entertainments,  supplying  suitable  reading,  station 
ery,  stamps,  and  refreshments. 

In  agriculture  and  industry  during  the  War.  The 
Negro  workers,  men  and  women,  in  agriculture  and  in 
dustry,  North  and  South,  also  took  their  part  in  the 
work  of  producing  the  food,  the  supplies,  and  the  ships 
to  win  the  war.  They  were  among  those  who  may  be 
called  the  fourth  line  of  defense.2  In  many  parts  of  the 
South  the  cotton  crop  from  which  fabrics  and  explosives 

1  Quoted  in  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  p.  323. 

2  A  report  of  "The  Negro  at  Work  During  the  World  War  and 
During  Reconstruction"  was  issued  by  the  U.  S.  Department  of 
Labor,  Division  of  Negro  Economics. 


ii6  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

were  made  depended  upon  the  labor  of  Negro  men, 
women,  and  children.  They  were  engaged  in  the  manu 
facture  of  ammunition  and  of  iron  and  steel  products, 
in  meat  packing,  in  the  production  of  automobiles  and 
trucks  for  army  purposes,  and  in  many  other  lines  of 
labor  required  by  the  necessities  of  our  task  at  the  front 
in  France.  Negroes  were  called  upon  to  supply  about 
one  fifth  of  the  war  laborers  in  the  meat  packing  plants 
of  Chicago  and  in  several  other  places.  There  were 
24,648  Negroes  in  forty-six  of  the  fifty-five  occupations 
incident  to  shipbuilding  under  the  United  States  Shipping 
Board. 

A  Negro,  Charles  Knight,  at  the  plant  of  the  Bethle 
hem  Steel  Corporation  at  Sparrow's  Point,  Maryland, 
broke  the  world's  record  for  driving  rivets  in  building 
steel  ships.  He  drove  4,875  three-quarter  inch  rivets 
during  one  nine-hour  day.  A  Negro  pile-driving  crew 
in  building  ship-ways  at  Hog  Island,  near  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,  broke  the  world's  record  for  driving  piles.  Negro 
miners  in  Alabama,  Illinois,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and 
West  Virginia,  probably  more  than  75,000  strong,  con 
tributed  in  large  measure  toward  supplying  the  fuel  for 
factories  and  railroads  and  ships.  Probably  an  addi 
tional  150,000  were  actively  assisting  in  the  operation  of 
the  railroads,  and  still  another  150,000  were  serving  to 
keep  up  other  means  of  communication  so  vital  to  war 
production. 

Negro  women,  besides  their  work  in  homes,  in  do 
mestic  service,  and  in  providing  for  their  men  at  their 
own  homes,  entered  the  lists  of  industrial  war  production 
workers.  The  Department  of  Labor,  Women's  Bureau 
(then  the  Women  in  Industry  Service),  with  the  coopera 
tion  of  the  Division  of  Negro  Economics,  sent  special 
agents  to  visit  152  typical  industrial  plants  employing 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         117 

Negro  women  during  the  War.  The  facts  showed x 
21,547  Negro  women  employed  in  these  plants  in  ap 
proximately  75  specific  processes. 

The  Secretary  of  War  drafted  men,  trained  them  as 
army  officers,  planned  and  sent  them  wherever  he  deemed 
wise.  They  had  to  obey.  The  Secretary  of  Labor  had 
to  mobilize  our  agricultural  and  industrial  army,  but  he 
had  no  authority  to  draft  workmen  or  compel  them  to 
stay  upon  any  task.  He  had  to  depend  upon  their  con 
fidence  and  their  enthusiasm  for  the  cause.  Yet,  Ameri 
can  men  and  women  by  the  millions  responded  heartily 
to  the  call  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor  for  full  labor  co 
operation. 

Negro  economics  during  the  War.  In  dealing  with 
the  matter  of  the  cooperation  of  Negro  workers,  the 
Secretary  recognized  that,  since  they  constituted  about 
cne  seventh  of  the  working  army,  their  enthusiasm,  con 
fidence,  and  cooperation  would  be  developed  best  by 
giving  them  representation  at  the  council  table  where 
matters  affecting  them  were  being  considered. 

He  therefore  created  the  Division  of  Negro  Economics 
in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor  and  appointed  as 
Director  of  Negro  Economics  Dr.  George  E.  Haynes, 
then  Professor  of  Social  Science  at  Fisk  University, 
Nashville,  Tennessee.  This  step  and  appointment  met 
with  hearty  endorsement  of  white  and  Negro  citizens  and 
organizations,  North  and  South.  The  work  of  this  of 
ficial  was  to  advise  the  Secretary  and  the  heads  of  the 
several  bureaus  and  divisions  of  the  Department  of 
Labor  on  policies  and  plans  for  improving  the  conditions 
of  Negro  workers  and  for  securing  their  full  cooperation 

1  Department  of  Labor  Report,  "The  Negro  at  Work,"  etc.,  pp. 
124-133- 


n8  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

with  white  workers  and  employers  for  maximum  pro 
duction. 

The  Secretary  of  Labor,  with  the  advice  of  the  Di 
rector  of  Negro  Economics,  adopted  a  plan  for  local 
county,  city,  and  state  Negro  Workers'  Advisory  Com 
mittees  composed  of  cooperating  white  employers,  Negro 
workers,  and,  wherever  possible,  white  workers,  in  order 
to  develop  racial  understanding  and  good-will.  These 
committees  in  counties  and  cities  in  eleven  states  were 
effective  in  preventing  friction,  antagonisms,  and  sus 
picions,  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  Negro  workers,  and 
in  promoting  cooperation  for  greater  production.  Negro 
officials  known  as  Supervisors  of  Negro  Economics  un 
der  the  general  direction  of  the  Director  of  Negro  Eco 
nomics  were  appointed  in  each  state  to  assist  the  local 
citizens'  committees.  As  the  racial-labor  problems  which 
had  to  be  met  were  local,  the  task  was  to  get  the  local 
communities  organized  to  meet  them  and  at  the  same 
time  to  recognize  the  larger  national  needs  and  standards 
in  dealing  with  local  situations.  State  Conferences,  ar 
ranged  by  the  Director  of  Negro  Economics  through  the 
cooperation  of  Governors,  state  directors  of  the  United 
States  Employment  Service,  and  local  employers  and 
workers,  and  composed  of  representative  white  and 
Negro  citizens,  were  held  in  twelve  states. 

Negro  Workers  Advisory  Committees  were  established 
in  eleven  states  and  did  work  that  had  a  far-reaching 
effect.  For  example,  operations  at  an  important  port  of 
debarkation  for  soldiers  and  for  war  supplies  seemed  to 
be  facing  a  serious  labor  shortage  due  to  the  lethargy  of 
workers.  Local  white  citizens  and  officials  adopted  a 
plan  to  compel  all  men  either  to  go  to  work  or  to  jail. 
The  chairman  of  the  local  Negro  Workers  Advisory 
Committee  sought  out  the  leaders  of  the  work-or-jail 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         119 

program.  He  proposed,  instead  of  the  jail  program,  a 
ten-day  publicity  and  educational  campaign  by  the  Ad 
visory  Committee  with  appeals  to  Negro  workers  to  rally 
to  the  labor  needs  of  the  occasion.  One  result  from  this 
campaign  was  applications  for  work  from  more  Negro 
laborers  than  were  needed.  Other  results  gave  a  per 
manent  city-wide  racial  cooperation  on  matters  of  com 
mon  interest. 

After  listening  to  the  report  of  a  year's  work  of  the 
Negro  Workers  Advisory  Committee  of  North  Carolina, 
the  late  Governor  Bickett  said,  "If  every  man,  white  and 
black,  in  the  United  States  could  read  and  digest  this 
report,  it  would  go  a  great  way  toward  solving  all  our 
race  questions."  White  and  Negro  newspapers,  small 
and  large,  North  and  South,  carried  many  articles  and 
editorials  recounting  and  commending  the  results  of  this 
work  fostered  by  the  Department  of  Labor. 

Negro  women  and  the  World  War,  Negro  women 
were  also  in  the  volunteer  work  for  war  relief  and  other 
activities.  Their  spirit  during  the  War  is  illustrated  in 
what  was  said  by  the  President  of  the  National  Asso 
ciation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs,  in  a  circular  letter 
sent  to  all  her  co-workers:  "It  becomes  our  duty,  first 
to  renew  the  spirit  of  patriotism  and  loyalty  in  the  hearts 
of  our  brave  boys,  who  will,  without  doubt,  be  called  to 
the  front,  and  to  comfort  those  whom  they  leave  at 
home.  ...  I  shall  urge  you  to  do  your  best  in  the  matter 
of  food  conservation,  realizing  that  a  great  bulk  of  con 
servation  lies  in  the  kitchens  of  our  country,  where  a 
million  of  our  women  are  being  called  to  service.  I 
shall  urge  you  to  buy  as  many  Liberty  Bonds  as  possible, 
even  if  you  are  cramped  in  doing  so.  I  shall  urge  mem 
bers  of  our  fraternal  organizations  to  lend  the  Govern 
ment  any  money  that  may  be  lying  dormant  in  their 


120  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

treasuries.  I  shall  urge  our  women's  organizations  to 
watch  over  colored  girls  and  women  near  camps,  so  that 
the  social  evil,  so  common  in  these  camps,  shall  not  be 
attributed  to  our  women  in  any  way." 

Records  of  what  the  women  did  are  very  incomplete 
as  many  of  their  organizations  were  more  intent  upon 
doing  the  work  than  upon  keeping  statistics  of  it.  The 
American  Red  Cross  kept  no  separate  records  of  Negro 
auxiliaries,  of  which  there  were  many.  The  Negro 
women  in  their  clubs,  in  the  Red  Cross,  and  Councils  of 
Defense,  with  the  white  women  in  their  organizations 
throughout  the  United  States,  carried  through  the  regis 
tration  for  war  work  when  a  nation-wide  enumeration 
was  made  at  the  call  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense, 
and  shared  in  all  the  other  remarkable  work  of  women 
during  the  War  period. 

Perhaps  no  finer  piece  of  work  was  done  by  Negro 
women  during  the  war  than  that  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association.  The  War 
Work  Council  of  the  National  Board  of  the  Y.W.C.A. 
set  aside  $400,000  of  its  $5,000,000  fund  for  war  work, 
for  work  among  Negro  women.  Fifteen  hostess  houses 
managed  by  Negro  women  were  erected  at  different 
camps  where  Negro  soldiers  were  in  training.  They 
enabled  the  wives,  mothers,  daughters,  and  friends  of 
Negro  soldiers  to  visit  them  under  wholesome  conditions. 
The  Y.W.C.A.  also  carried  out  provisions  to  protect 
women  and  girls  in  communities  near  the  camps.  They 
put  on  a  National  Industrial  Secretary  who  developed 
clubs  of  working  girls  to  deal  with  their  problems  as 
wage  earners  and  as  members  of  the  home  life  of  the 
community.  The  work  of  war  nursing  and  war  relief 
was  a  phase  that  appealed  especially  to  Negro  women. 
They  had  one  of  their  greatest  trials  to  get  the  oppor- 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         121 

tunity  to  serve  as  nurses.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
nursing  divisions  of  the  American  Red  Cross  never  saw 
fit  to  utilize  the  service  of  Negro  women  to  serve  over 
seas,  where  they  might  have  rendered  invaluable  service 
among  the  thousands  of  sick  and  wounded  Negro  sol 
diers.  In  June,  1918,  the  Secretary  of  War  did  admit 
Negro  nurses  for  service  in  the  army  camps  at  home. 
Many  months  before,  the  President  of  the  National  Asso 
ciation  of  Graduate  Nurses  had  reported  and  offered  to 
the  Government  the  services  of  a  thousand  Negro  women 
nurses. 

In  Liberty  Loan  and  food  campaigns.  It  is  impos 
sible  to  get  the  figures  for  an  exact  estimate  of  the  total 
amount  of  subscriptions  of  Negroes  to  Liberty  Bonds. 
From  individual  records  like  those  which  follow,  it  has 
been  estimated  that  Negroes  contributed  to  the  Liberty 
Loans  and  War  Work  Drives  more  than  $250,000,000, 
an  average  of  about  $25  for  every  Negro  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  the  United  States.  Secretary 
McAdoo  of  the  United  States  Treasury  made  public  ac 
knowledgment  of  the  whole-souled  cooperation  of  the 
Negro  people  throughout  the  country  1  in  connection  with 
the  effort  of  raising  liberty  loans.2  There  were  many 
Negroes  of  small  means  whose  gifts,  though  not  large  in 
amounts,  represented  the  spirit  of  readiness  to  give  their 
all  for  liberty  and  democracy  for  which  they  believe  their 
country  stands.  Mary  Smith,  a  Negro  cook  in  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  was  approached  by  her  mistress  with  a  request  to 
buy  a  $100  bond.  She  replied:  "I  don't  want  no  little 
hundred  dollar  bond,  I  want  a  thousand  dollar  bond  and 
I'll  pay  cash  for  it."  This  sum  represented  her  lifetime 
savings.  Richard  Priestly,  a  Negro  farmer  in  Georgia 

1  See  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  p.  358. 

2  Figures  taken  mainly  from  the  Negro  Year  Book,  pp.  45-50. 


122  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

who  had  sent  two  sons  to  the  War,  bought  a  thousand 
dollar  bond  and  thus  put  fresh  spirit  into  the  local 
campaign. 

Thomas  Brown,  an  ex-slave,  living  in  Texas,  seventy- 
five  years  old,  accumulated  $50  as  a  wood  chopper  and 
doing  chores  and  invested  in  a  Liberty  Bond.  A  nine 
year  old  boy  of  San  Antonio,  Texas,  saved  more  than  five 
thousand  pennies  and  invested  them  in  a  Liberty  Bond. 
Negro  women  in  a  tobacco  factory  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  were 
reported  to  have  subscribed  $91,000  to  Liberty  Bonds. 

The  North  Carolina  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company 
purchased  over  $300,000  of  bonds  and  thrift  stamps. 
The  Standard  Life  Insurance  Company  of  Atlanta  in 
vested  $50,000  in  bonds;  the  Atlanta  Insurance  Com 
pany,  $52,000,  and  the  United  Insurance  Company  of 
New  Orleans,  $10,000. 

Following  the  Third  Liberty  Loan  Drive,  the  United 
States  Treasury  Department  awarded  first  place  among 
all  the  banks  of  the  United  States  to  a  Negro  bank,  the 
Mutual  Savings  Bank,  Portsmouth,  Va.,  which  was  given 
a  quota  of  $5,700  to  raise,  but  raised  a  total  of  over 
$100,000  or  nearly  twenty  times  the  stipulated  amount. 

The  importance  of  the  Negro  people  in  helping  to 
conserve  food  was  recognized  by  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover, 
Director  of  the  Food  Administration.  The  Negro  Di 
vision  was  organized  in  his  Educational  Department,  first 
under  Mr.  A.  U.  Craig  and  later  under  Mr.  Ernest  T. 
Atwell.  These  gentlemen  succeeded  in  lining  up  10,- 
000,000  Negroes  in  the  United  States  who  responded 
heartily  to  the  call  to  conserve  and  save  food.  In  every 
state  where  there  was  a  considerable  Negro  population, 
there  were  Negro  assistants  associated  with  the  state 
food  directors. 

The    Negro    in    the    Army.      There    were    342,277 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         123 

Negroes  accepted  for  full  military  service,  a  larger  per 
centage  of  Negro  men  than  of  white  men,  for  of  white 
men  there  were  26.8  per  cent  accepted,  and  of  Negro 
men,  31.7  per  cent.  It  is  significant  that  on  March  25, 
1917,  even  before  war  was  declared  against  Germany  by 
the  United  States,  the  First  Separate  Battalion,  District 
of  Columbia,  National  Guard,  was  called  into  service. 
This  battalion  was  placed  in  charge  of  watching  the 
water  supply  and  the  various  power  plants  of  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  to  prevent  any  possible  attack  by 
inimical  aliens.  The  Negro  Guardsmen  were  chosen  be 
cause,  as  one  newspaper  expressed  it,  there  were  no 
hyphenates  among  these  Americans. 

High  positions  of  responsibility,  honor,  and  trust  in 
the  army  did  not  come  without  a  determined  struggle 
by  Negro  Americans.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  cam 
paign  that  Negroes  and  their  friends  had  to  make  to 
secure  training  for  capable  Negro  men  who  wanted  to 
become  officers  and  serve  their  country  in  these  responsi 
ble  positions.  They  were  denied  opportunity  to  get  train 
ing  at  Plattsburg  and  the  Government  Training  Camps 
established  by  Congress  for  white  officers.  Prominent 
citizens  took  up  the  question  of  provision  for  the  training 
of  Negro  officers.  Negro  students  also  were  deeply  in 
terested  in  the  matter.  A  Central  Committee  of  Negro 
Colleges,  with  headquarters  at  Howard  University,  in  a 
short  time  obtained  the  names  of  1,500  competent  Negro 
men  who  stood  ready  to  enroll  at  an  Officers'  Training 
Camp. 

An  appeal  was  made  to  the  War  Department  for  such 
a  camp.  Congressmen  were  interviewed  and  some  sena 
tors  and  representatives  gave  their  approval.  Negro 
churches  and  national  leaders  ga/e  their  endorsement, 
the  Negro  press  furnished  its  support,  although  some  of 


124  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  Negro  people  themselves  criticized  the  effort  as  a 
move  to  establish  a  "J*m"crow"  camp.  After  about  three 
weeks'  campaigning  in  this  way,  the  War  Department  on 
May  12,  1917,  gave  notice  that  a  camp  to  accommodate 
about  1,250  men  would  be  established  at  Fort  Dodge, 
Iowa,  on  June  15.  The  committee  of  Negro  college 
men  then  turned  their  efforts  to  see  that  the  young  Negro 
men  throughout  the  country,  capable  of  passing  the 
examination  to  enter  the  camp,  would  now  volunteer. 
A  circular  which  they  sent  out  said,  "No  one  who  has 
not  been  in  the  fight  knows  what  a  struggle  we  have  had 
to  obtain  the  camp.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  mince  matters;  the 
race  is  on  trial.  It  needs  every  one  of  its  red-blooded, 
noble  men."  1 

On  June  15,  1917,  Negro  men  assembled  at  Des  Moines 
expecting  to  be  trained  for  a  period  of  three  months. 
At  the  end  of  that  time,  however,  the  War  Department 
decided  to  continue  the  training  another  month.  So 
dubious  had  been  the  men  about  the  intentions  of  the 
Government  to  commission  Negro  officers  that  some  of 
them  lost  hope  and  dropped  out  of  the  camp.  The  great 
majority,  however,  remained,  and  on  October  14,  1917, 
officers'  commissions  were  issued  to  639 :  106  as  captains, 
329  as  first  lieutenants,  and  204  as  second  lieutenants. 
These  officers  were  sent  to  seven  different  camps  where 
the  widely  distributed  units  of  the  92d  Division,  the 
Negro  Division  of  the  Army,  were  in  training. 

While  these  men  were  in  training  at  Des  Moines,  a 
regrettable  clash  took  place  in  August,  1917,  between  the 
Negro  soldiers  and  the  citizens  of  Houston,  Texas.  This 
incident  aroused  intense  feeling  among  the  Negro  people 
and  great  fears  and  hostile  feeling  among  the  white 
people  when  Negro  troops  should  be  placed  in  a  number 

1  Quoted  in  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  p.  89. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         125 

of  the  Southern  camps  for  the  training  of  soldiers.  On 
May  18,  1917,  Congress  had  enacted  the  Selective  Service 
Act,  popularly  called  the  "Draft  Law."  This  was  to  be 
applied  to  black  and  white  alike,  and  it  was  evident  that 
if  the  Negro  soldiers  were  drafted,  they  would  have  to  be 
trained  somewhere. 

So  aroused  were  some  of  the  white  people  in  some  of 
the  states  about  the  matter,  however,  that  officials  and 
citizens  presented  many  protests  to  the  Government  at 
Washington.  The  War  Department  first  took  the  posi 
tion  that  the  Negro  and  white  troops  of  the  National 
Guard  Divisions  should  be  stationed  at  such  posts  as  the 
exigencies  of  the  service  made  necessary.  After  consid 
erable  conference,  however,  the  Secretary  of  War  modi 
fied  the  policy  to  the  extent  that  while  Southern  states 
might  take  exception  to  camps  of  Negroes  recruited  from 
Northern  states,  they  could  not  well  object  to  the  Negro 
draftees  from  the  several  districts  of  their  own  states.1 
This  worked  hardships  upon  some  of  the  draftees  from 
states  like  Alabama,  which  had  only  a  camp  for  Na 
tional  Guardsmen.  It  did  work  out,  however,  that 
Negroes  from  states  like  Georgia  and  Arkansas  were 
thrown  into  cantonments  with  draftees  from  the  North 
and  West,  and  it  soon  developed  that  white  and  Negro 
men  could  get  on  together  in  the  same  camps  without 
much  friction. 

There  had  been  much  agitation  in  the  newspapers  and 
considerable  question  raised  as  to  what  would  be  the 
action  and  attitude  of  the  Negroes,  especially  those  in  the 
South,  when  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  "Draft  Law." 
There  was  undoubtedly  dissatisfaction  among  the  Negro 
people  about  evils  from  which  they  had  suffered  for  so 
many  years.  Official  testimony  also  from  the  Department 
1  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  72-77. 


126  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

of  Justice  and  from  the  Military  Intelligence  Bureau  of 
the  War  Department  showed  that  the  Germans  had  really 
tried  to  incite  the  Negroes  against  the  Government. 

Some  of  the  white  newspapers  greatly  exaggerated  the 
amount  of  this  German  propaganda  and  created  the  im 
pression  that  it  was  gaining  a  great  headway  among 
Negroes  and  that  they  would  be  likely  to  take  exception 
to  the  draft  or  become  deserters.  The  Patriotic  Educa 
tion  Society  of  Washington  sent  out  several  stories  about 
relations  of  German  agents  to  Negro  unrest  in  the  South. 
The  facts  were  that  mistreatment  in  America  was  at  the 
bottom  of  such  unrest  among  Negroes  and  not  German 
agents.  Some  sentiment,  too,  was  expressed  by  one  or 
two  Southern  newspapers  that  Negroes  should  not  be 
drafted  at  all  because  they  had  not  equally  shared  in  the 
benefits  of  the  government.1  During  the  entire  period 
of  the  World  War,  however,  the  Negro  people  of  Amer 
ica  showed  an  elevated  spirit  in  rising  above  the  wrongs 
and  injustices  they  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  their 
white  neighbors  and  rallied  unselfishly  to  the  support 
of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

The  momentous  registration  day,  June  5,  1917,  came. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  only  a  few  localities 
were  Negro  citizens  allowed  to  serve  as  selective  service 
registrars.  Even  with  this  racial  enticement  removed, 
the  Negro  men  subject  to  the  draft  went  without 
hesitation  to  the  places  of  registration  and  listed  their 
names  as  those  who  were  ready  to  obey  the  law  and  to 
respond  to  the  call  of  their  country.  In  fact,  some  of 
the  Southern  newspapers  said  that  the  Negro  had  out 
stripped  his  white  fellow-citizen  in  his  readiness  and 
promptness  in  responding  to  the  call  of  his  country.  In 
many  well  established  cases,  Negro  men  who  had  ample 

1  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  p.  350. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES        127 

ground  for  exemption,  such  as  dependent  families,  did 
not  claim  it.  Under  the  selective  service  regulations,  the 
official  reports  show  that  51.6  per  cent  of  the  Negro 
registrants  were  placed  in  Class  I  subject  to  first  call, 
and  only  32.5  per  cent  of  the  white  registrants  were  so 
classified.1  It  appears  that  Negroes  formed  nearly  8  per 
cent  of  the  entire  registration.  Of  the  draftees  certified 
for  service,  the  first  official  report  of  the  Provost 
Marshal  General  states  that  of  every  100  Negro  citizens 
called  in  the  draft,  36  were  certified  for  service  and  64 
rejected,  exempted,  or  discharged,  while  for  every  100 
white  citizens  called,  25  were  certified  for  service  and  75 
were  rejected,  exempted,  or  discharged. 

The  action  of  the  Negro  draftees  in  responding  so 
heartily  settled  once  for  all  the  question  as  to  whether 
German  propaganda,  mistreatment  and  denial  of  the 
rights,  immunities  and  privileges  of  full  citizenship,  or 
any  other  cause  would  so  affect  the  unalterable  loyalty  of 
Negro  American  citizens  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  the 
symbol  of  our  democracy,  as  to  cause  them  to  hesitate 
when  there  was  need  that  they  offer  themselves  in  its 
defense. 

The  Provost  Marshal  General  in  his  second  annual  re 
port  to  the  Secretary  of  War  commented  on  the  situation 
thus :  2  "Some  doubt  was  felt  and  expressed,  by  the  best 
friends  of  the  Negro,  when  the  call  came  for  a  draft 
upon  the  man  power  of  the  nation,  whether  he  would 
possess  sufficient  stamina  to  measure  up  to  the  full  duty 
of  citizenship  and  would  give  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
that  had  guaranteed  for  him  the  same  liberties  now 
sought  for  all  nations  and  all  races  the  response  that  was 
its  due.  And  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  of  the  Negro 

1  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  67-69. 

2  Quoted  in  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  69-70. 


128  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

race,  there  was  apprehension  that  the  sense  of  fair  play 
and  fair  dealing,  which  is  so  essentially  an  American 
characteristic,  would  not,  nay,  could  not,  in  a  country  of 
such  diversified  views,  with  sectional  feelings  still  slum 
bering  but  not  dead,  be  meted  out  to  the  members  of  the 
colored  race.  .  .  . 

"How  groundless  such  fears,  how  ill  considered  such 
doubts,  may  be  seen  from  the  statistical  records  of  the 
draft  with  relation  to  the  Negro.  His  race  furnished 
its  quota,  and  uncomplainingly,  yes,  cheerfully.  History, 
indeed,  will  be  unable  to  record  the  fullness  of  his  spirit 
in  the  War,  for  the  reason  that  opportunities  for  enlist 
ment  were  not  open  to  him  to  the  same  extent  as  to 
the  whites.  But  enough  can  be  gathered  from  the  records 
to  show  that  he  was  filled  with  the  same  feeling  of 
patriotism,  the  same  martial  spirit  that  fired  his  white  fel 
low-citizens  in  the  cause  for  world  freedom."  In  the 
cheerful  words  of  a  Negro  poet : 1 

.    .    .  And  they  went  in  at  all  detractors  smiling; 
They  learned  as  quick  as  anyhow  to  shoot, 
They  took  the  prize  at  loading  ships,  and  riveting  and  piling, 
And  trained  a  thousand  officers  to  boot. 

The  many  other  problems  that  the  War  Department 
was  facing  in  handling  this  work  showed  the  great  need 
of  some  representative  Negro  of  ability  as  a  special  ad 
viser  to  the  War  Department  who  could  give  them  in 
formation  and  council  from  within  the  Negro  world. 
Consequently,  Dr.  R.  R.  Moton,  principal  of  Tuskegee 
Institute,  in  August,  1917,  called  upon  the  Secretary  of 
War  and  pointed  out  to  him  the  necessity  of  having  in 
the  War  Department  such  a  Negro.2  He  pointed  out 

1  Hill,  Leslie  Pinckney,  "The  Black  Man's  Bit,"  in  The  Wings 
of  Oppression. 

2  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  p.  41. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         129 

also  the  encouragement  such  a  step  would  give  the 
Negroes  of  the  nation.  After  consideration  of  the  mat 
ter,  the  Secretary  of  War,  October  5,  1917,  announced 
that  he  had  appointed  Dr.  Emmett  J.  Scott,  secretary  of 
Tuskegee  Institute,  and  "assigned  him  the  post  of  duty  in 
the  War  Department  as  confidential  adviser."  Dr.  Scott's 
wide  experience  as  private  secretary  to  Booker  T.  Wash 
ington  caused  representative  white  and  Negro  citizens  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  to  endorse  this  action  by  the 
Secretary. 

There  were  many  complaints  of  difficulties,  and  dis 
criminations  and  race  friction  in  the  camps.  The  Secre 
tary  of  War,  with  the  advice  of  his  special  assistant,  did 
everything  he  could  to  correct  these  abuses,  but  many  con 
tinued,  nevertheless.  Dr.  Scott's  fine  work  in  promoting 
the  training  of  officers  and  in  stimulating  action  in  the 
camps  and  among  Negroes  of  the  nation  is  well  set  forth 
in  his  Official  History  of  the  American  Negro  in  the 
World  War. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  complaints  that  were 
thoroughly  investigated  and  certified  to  by  a  Committee 
on  Welfare  of  Negro  Troops  of  the  Wartime  Com 
mission  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America:  unfair  treatment,  oftentimes  on  the  part  of 
the  military  police;  inadequate  provision  for  recreation; 
restrictions  upon  educated  Negroes  in  their  attempt  to 
rise  above  non-commissioned  officers  in  labor  bat 
talions  ;  unreasonable  confinement  in  the  guard  house 
and  unreasonably  heavy  penalties ;  lack  of  proper  medical 
treatment;  insufficient  number  of  hostess  houses;  slow 
discharges  of  labor  battalions  after  the  Armistice; 
abusive  language  used  to  colored  soldiers  by  white  of 
ficers  ;  inadequate  supply  of  clothing,  overcoats,  bedding, 
and  tent  flooring  at  points  where  winter  was  hard  upon 


130  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  men.  At  one  or  two  camps  Negro  soldiers  were  pro 
vided  with  no  sanitary  conveniences,  bathing  facilities,  or 
Y.M.C.A.  service  during  the  War  period,  until  after 
white  soldiers  had  left  the  station. 

During  the  course  of  the  War  many  stories  of  unfair 
treatment  and  discrimination  against  colored  soldiers  in 
France  came  by  way  of  letters  and  reports  of  soldiers 
who  returned  as  the  War  went  on.  The  suggestion  was 
made  by  a  committee  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  that  the  Government  send  a  delegation  of  three 
Negroes  to  investigate  these  complaints  and  make  a  re 
port.  This  recommendation  was  approved,  but  the  short 
ness  of  time  between  the  suggestion  and  the  end  of  the 
War,  as  well  as  the  slow-working  machinery  in  such 
matters,  did  not  permit  this  suggestion  to  be  carried 
out. 

Negro  troops  in  action.  The  Q2d  Division,  com 
posed  entirely  of  Negro  units  which  had  been  trained  at 
seven  different  camps,  was  ordered  overseas  in  May, 
1918.  Following  eight  weeks  of  training  there  in  the 
new  war  tactics,  the  Division  took  up  its  first  fighting 
responsibilities  in  the  St.  Die  sector  and  received  its  first 
baptism  of  fire.  It  held  this  sector  for  four  weeks,  re 
pelling  all  attacks  of  the  enemy,  taking  a  number  of 
prisoners  and  a  quantity  of  war  material.  Later  the 
Division  was  withdrawn  from  this  sector  and  ordered  to 
Marbache,  directly  south  of  Metz,  one  of  the  most 
strongly  fortified  positions  of  the  Germans  and  most 
completely  connected  with  the  rear  by  means  of  railroads 
and  other  forms  of  communication.  The  enemy  was 
not  falling  back  here  as  he  was  doing  along  the  Hinden- 
burg  line;  he  was  entrenched  in  positions  prepared  for 
more  than  four  years  and  was  supported  by  artillery 
that  had  had  plenty  of  time  to  get  the  range  of  all  area 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         131 

before  it.  The  Negro  troops,  facing  such  defenses,  were 
constantly  on  the  offensive  and  had  made  repeated  gains 
and  territory  when  the  order  with  the  signing  of  the 
Armistice  closed  their  operations.  This  Division  suffered 
heavy  losses  in  its  various  operations,  the  total  of  casual 
ties  and  missing  being  103  officers  and  1,543  men.1 

In  reporting  the  conduct  of  the  92d  Division,  one  of 
the  Brigadier  Generals  said,  "We  took  complete  posses 
sion  of  No  Man's  Land.  After  the  first  few  days  we 
were  unable  to  find  any  German  patrols  outside  of  their 
lines."  The  commanding  general  in  making  a  report  of 
the  first  day's  operation  said  that  undoubtedly  the  enemy 
considered  the  Q2d  Division  an  "uncomfortable  neighbor 
with  whom  he  intends  to  avoid  close  relations  in  the  fu 
ture."  A  major  of  one  of  the  battalions  in  making  a 
report  said:  "I  desire  especially  to  call  to  the  attention 
of  the  division  commander  the  fact  that  the  handling  of 
their  units  by  their  company  and  battalion  commanders 
was  all  that  could  be  expected  of  the  most  experienced 
officers."  2  In  reviewing  the  troops  in  January,  just  be 
fore  they  reembarked  for  home,  General  Pershing  said 
to  the  men  of  the  g2d  Division:  "You  stood  second  to 
none  in  the  record  you  have  made  since  your  arrival  in 
France." 

All  the  regiments  of  the  92d  Division  were  vying  for 
greatest  achievement  in  service.  It  was  said,  however, 
that  the  367th  regiment,  popularly  known  as  "the  Buf 
faloes,"  probably  made  the  outstanding  record.  The  en 
tire  first  battalion  was  cited  for  bravery  and  awarded  the 
Croix  de  Guerre,  entitling  every  officer  and  man  in  the 
battalion  to  wear  this  insignia  of  valor.  Colonel  James 
'A.  Moss,  the  white  commanding  officer  of  this  regiment, 

1  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  130-162. 

2  From  documents  in  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  148-167. 


I32  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

born  and  bred  in  the  South,  learned  to  appreciate  these 
Negroes  as  real  men  and  received  their  confidence  and 
affection.  Speaking  of  his  soldiers,  he  says,  "Treat  and 
handle  the  colored  man  as  you  would  any  other  human 
being  out  of  whom  you  would  make  a  good  soldier,  out 
of  whom  you  would  get  the  best  there  is  in  him,  and 
you  will  have  as  good  a  soldier  as  history  has  ever 
known — a  man  who  will  drill  well,  shoot  well,  march 
well,  obey  well,  fight  well."  * 

There  have  been  charges  and  countercharges  about  the 
failure  of  some  Negro  troops  in  battle.  As  with  some 
of  the  white  troops  unused  to  the  ordeal  of  this  con 
flict,  mistakes  were  probably  made  by  some  troops,  but 
the  testimony  is  universal  that  whatever  happened  these 
cases  were  exceptions  and  that  the  Negro  soldiers  in  the 
fighting  in  France  won  honor  for  themselves  and  glory 
for  their  flag  and  country. 

A  Negro  regiment,  popularly  known  as  "The  Old  Fif 
teenth"  of  the  New  York  National  Guard,  had  an  inter 
esting  record.  After  some  weeks  of  training  in  France, 
the  regiment,  unassisted  by  the  French,  was  given  a 
sector  in  the  Bois  D'Hauze  in  Champagne.  They  served 
here  a  few  weeks,  and  after  a  period  of  rest  were  trans 
ferred  to  a  French  Division  in  which  there  were  French 
Moroccan  troops.  On  September  26,  they  were  sent  into 
action.  The  entire  regiment  deported  itself  with  such 
gallantry  and  courage  that  171  officers  and  enlisted  men 
were  cited  for  the  French  Croix  de  Guerre  and  their 
colonel  for  the  Legion  of  Honor.  This  regiment  was 
the  first  contingent  of  Negro  American  soldiers  to  enter 
the  trenches  and  was  the  first  unit  of  the  allied  armies 
to  reach  the  Rhine.  The  regiment  held  a  trench  many 
days  without  relief,  and  was  under  such  service  at  one 

1  Scott,  E.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  I94-IQ5- 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         133 

period  for  191  days.  It  is  said  of  this  regiment  that  it 
"never  lost  a  trench,  a  foot  of  ground,  or  a  man  cap 
tured." 

Colonel  Hayward,  now  United  States  District  Attor 
ney,  County  of  New  York,  who  commanded  the  regi 
ment,  in  commenting  on  whether  or  not  the  American 
Negro  would  stand  up  in  battle  under  the  terrific  shell 
and  other  fire  in  the  World  War  as  he  had  always  stood 
up  under  rifle  fire  in  other  wars,  said,  "They  are  posi 
tively  the  most  stoical  and  mysterious  men  I  have  ever 
known.  Nothing  surprises  them,  and  French  officers  say 
they  are  entirely  different  from  their  own  African  troops 
and  the  Indian  troops  of  the  British,  who  are  so  excitable 
under  fire."  1  When  twelve  volunteers  were  called  from 
one  company  of  the  regiment  for  a  raiding  party,  the 
whole  company  fell  in  line.  All  wanted  to  go,  and  their 
captain  had  to  pick  twelve  men. 

A  Negro  regiment,  the  Eighth  Illinois  National  Guard, 
was  mustered  into  the  National  Army  as  the  37Oth  United 
States  Infantry.  This  regiment  had  Negro  officers  from 
the  colonel  down.  Colonel  Franklin  T.  Dennison,  com 
mander  of  the  regiment,  and  later  Colonel  Otis  C.  Dun 
can,  who  succeeded  him,  helped  to  demonstrate  to  the 
world  that  Negro  soldiers  could  fight  heroically  and  suc 
cessfully  under  the  command  of  Negro  officers.  There 
were  two  other  regiments,  the  37ist  and  372d,  composed 
of  Negro  troops  that  saw  active  service  with  a  French 
Division.  In  a  farewell  order  as  these  regiments  took 
leave  of  France,  General  Coybet,  of  the  15 7th  (French) 
Division,  said,  "Never  will  the  I57th  Division  forget 
the  indomitable  dash,  the  heroic  rush  of  the  American 
regiments  (Negro)  up  the  observatory  ridge  and  into 

1  From  a  letter  of  Colonel  Hayward,  quoted  in  Scott,  E.  J., 
work  cited,  pp.  204-206. 


134  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  Plains  of  Monthois  .  .  .  These  crack  regiments  over 
came  every  obstacle  with  a  most  complete  contempt  for 
danger.  Through  their  steady  devotion,  the  'Red  Hand 
Division*  for  nine  whole  days  of  severe  struggle  was  con 
stantly  leading  the  way  for  the  victorious  advance  of  the 
Fourth  Army."  x  The  1 57th  Division  erected  a  monu 
ment  near  Monthois,  Ardennes,  in  honor  of  the  dead  of 
the  371  st  and  372d  infantry  who  fought  and  died  with 
them. 

The  first  American  soldiers,  black  or  white,  to  receive 
the  French  Croix  de  Guerre,  were  Needham  Roberts,  of 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  and  Henry  Johnson,  of  Albany,  N.  Y., 
both  members  of  "The  Old  Fifteenth"  of  New  York, 
then  the  369^  Infantry,  A.E.F.  The  recital  of  their 
exploits  in  beating  off  a  dozen  or  more  Germans,  after 
both  had  been  wounded,  was  one  of  the  first  stories  of 
heroism  to  be  flashed  over  the  wires  and  printed  in  news 
papers  throughout  the  country  in  the  early  days  of  our 
expedition  to  France.  In  speaking  of  the  incident,  the 
New  York  Times  said,  "If  the  good  and  the  great  who 
have  preceded  the  heroes  of  the  present  are  privileged  to 
read  the  citations  for  conspicuous  bravery  that  mark  their 
honorable  successors,  how  must  the  shade  of  Robert 
Gould  Shaw  rejoice."  These  exploits  of  regiments  and 
individual  heroes  explain  why  the  Germans  were  so 
afraid  of  the  black  troops  and  why  they  bestowed  upon 
them  the  nickname  of  "Afro-American  Devil  Dogs." 
General  Pershing  cabled  Secretary  Baker,  "I  cannot  com 
mend  too  highly  the  spirit  shown  among  the  colored  com 
batant  troops  who  exhibit  fine  capacity  for  quick  train 
ing  and  eagerness  for  the  most  dangerous."  2 

When  Negroes  have  given  so  much  for  their  country, 

1  Quoted  in  The  Crisis,  March,  1919. 

2  Quoted  in  newspaper  dispatches,  June  21,  1918. 


OFFERING  TO  THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES         135 

will  not  their  country  make  safe  for  them  that  democ 
racy  for  which  so  many  have  sacrificed  and  died?  The 
Negro  soul  has  dreamed  democracy.  The  Negro  heart 
has  panted  for  the  waterbrooks  of  liberty.  Whenever 
the  paths  have  led  toward  that  immortal  stream,  the 
Negro  has  been  willing  and  eager  to  go.  If  those  have 
been  paths  of  peace,  of  patient  toil,  of  daily  drudgery  in 
field  or  forest,  or  of  vaulting  thought  and  boiling  feel 
ing,  his  feet  have  uncomplainingly  sought  the  way. 
When  these  paths  have  led  to  war,  to  sacrifice,  and  to 
death,  his  bleeding  footprints  have  been  among  those  of 
the  many  left  upon  the  sands  of  time.  The  Negro  has 
been  a  man  of  peace,  but  whenever  the  issue  of  democ 
racy  has  forced  its  devotees  to  battle  and  to  death,  he 
has  not  hesitated  to  offer  himself  and  all  he  possesses. 
These  services  in  agriculture,  in  industry,  in  volunteer 
relief,  the  giving  of  their  means  for  loans  and  of  them 
selves  for  duty  even  unto  death  show  the  feelings,  the 
attitudes,  and  the  habits  of  action  toward  their  country 
and  their  flag  of  the  first  generation  of  freemen.  They 
have  caught  and  are  bearing  on  the  torch  from  the  hands 
of  those  of  the  past.  Thousands  of  them  have  shown 
the  greatest  love  one  human  being  can  show  others  in 
laying  down  their  lives  like  other  Americans.  Theirs 
is  a  challenge  to  other  Americans  to  dedicate  them 
selves  to  the  principles  of  Jesus  that  are  essentially  those 
of  democracy. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Trend  of  the  White  World1 

WITHIN  human  life  two  impulses  press  forward  to 
control  the  affairs  of  men.  One  is  self-assertive,  self- 
centered,  and  dominating,  considering  only  gain  in  wealth 
and  power.  The  other  is  self-denying,  seeking  justice  and 
mercy,  ever  ready  to  consider  the  interest  of  the  other 
fellow,  the  other  group,  or  the  other  race.  There  are 
varying  shades  of  motives  between  these  two  impulses, 
and  both  are  active  in  American  life  to-day.  One  wants 
abolition  of  war ;  the  other  seeks,  foreign  trade  even  if  it 
involves  war.  One  is  after  money  and  has  few  scruples 
about  when  or  how  it  is  got  so  long  as  it  is  obtained  and 
there  is  little  publicity.  The  other  seeks  the  brother- 
liness  of  the  Kingdom,  knowing  that  these  things  will  be 
added. 

Both  these  currents  of  the  common  life  touch  and  work 
within  the  Negro's  life  and  his  world.  With  the  drawing 
apart  of  the  two  races,  the  Negro  sees  and  feels  less  and 
less  of  the  kindlier  side  and  knows  less  of  the  ideal  side 
of  the  white  world.  The  races  do  not  meet  as  much  as 
formerly  in  home  and  church  and  school,  where  altruistic 
service  flows.  Their  contacts  now  are  more  in  the  rough 
and  tumble  of  work  and  trade,  where  mainly  profits  are 
sought,  or  in  the  affairs  of  government,  where  struggles 
for  power  are  waged.  It  is  necessary,  then,  for  a  clear 
view  of  the  whole  situation  to  sketch  the  sides  of  the 
white  world  that  touch  the  Negro  world,  however  in- 

1  The  author  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Will  W.  Alexander  for  assist 
ance  in  gathering  some  of  the  material  in  this  chapter  and  for 
suggestions  as  to  certain  points  contained  »in  it.  Mr.  Alexander 
should  not,  however,  be  held  responsible  for  the  treatment  of 
the  subject. 

136 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  137 

complete  and  inadequate  such  a  description  and  analysis 
may  be.  At  the  outset  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  it 
is  difficult  to  summarize  the  ideas  and  arguments  involved 
without  seeming  to  argue  debated  points.  The  purpose 
here  is  not  to  argue  and  render  judgments  on  these  ideas, 
attitudes,  and  ways,  but  to  set  them  forth  clearly  and  to 
set  over  against  them  the  facts  that  should  be  weighed 
with  them  as  an  exposition  of  a  national  situation. 

Attitudes  and  ways  of  action  due  to  conscience. 
From  under  the  door-posts  of  the  house  of  Negro 
bondage  flow  waters  that  come  from  the  two  different 
springs  described  in  the  opening  paragraph.  The  hu 
manitarian  and  religious  impulses  of  conscience  have 
struggled  with  those  of  econon.ic  cravings.  Benjamin 
Lunday,  the  father  of  "gradual  abolition,"  was  a  Ken- 
tuckian,  as  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Emancipator. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  great  Virginian,  commenting  on 
slavery,  said,  "I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect 
that  God  is  just ;  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep  forever."  1 
In  the  Tennessee  Constitutional  Convention  of  1834,  the 
delegates  from  the  eastern  counties  contended  for  a  pro 
vision  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  At  one  time 
the  setting  free  of  slaves  became  so  frequent  in  Virginia 
that  the  legislature  placed  barriers  in  the  way.2  The 
Negro  free  populations  of  southern  Illinois,  Indiana,  and 
Ohio  bear  testimony  to  the  conscience  of  the  masters  who 
became  actively  convinced  that  slavery  was  wrong.  Be 
fore  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  anti-slavery  societies 
grew  and  flourished,  not  only  in  the  more  advanced  east 
ern  states,  but  in  .the  then  pioneer  states.  By  1792,  there 
were  abolition  societies  in  all  the  states  from  Massachu- 


1  Jefferson,    Thomas,   Notes   on    Virginia,  writings   edited    by 
P.  L.  Ford,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  267. 

2  Brawley,  B.  G.,  work  cited,  pp.  63,  76. 


138  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

setts  to  Virginia,  and  two  years  later  the  American  Con 
vention  of  Abolition  Societies  was  formed  at  Philadel 
phia  by  nine  of  these  societies.1  It  was  in  one  of  these 
frontier  communities  that  Owen  Love  joy  laid  down  his 
life  for  his  convictions  against  the  system. 

American  history  would  lose  many  of  its  illustrious 
names  if  its  records  omitted  those  who  have  spent  for 
tune,  given  life,  and  become  acquainted  with  grief,  that 
the  dispossessed  children  of  color  might  be  free  and  be 
admitted  to  the  brotherhood.  From  William  Penn,  Gar 
ret  Hendricks,  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  from  Lord  Ogle- 
thorpe,  Roger  Williams,  and  Cotton  Mather,  from  John 
Woolman  and  Anthony  Benzenet,  from  St.  George  Tucker 
of  William  and  Mary  College,  Hezekiah  Niles,  editor  of 
Niles's  Register,  Lorenzo  Dow,  the  Methodist  preacher, 
and  Henry  Clay,  the  statesman,  down  to  Owen  Lovejoy, 
John  Brown,  Charles  Sumner,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
Samuel  C.  Armstrong,  Bishop  Capers,  Bishop  Atticus  G. 
Haygood,  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway,  Robert  C.  Ogden, 
James  H.  Dillard,  and  John  J.  Eagan,  there  has  been  an 
unbroken  line  of  those  who  have  given  themselves  to  stop 
the  mouths  of  the  lions  of  prejudice  and  exploitation. 

The  present-day  attitudes  arising  from  conscience  may 
best  be  expressed  in  the  words  of  individuals  and  organi 
zations  mainly  of  white  men  and  women,  many  of  whom, 
North  and  South,  have  joined  with  Negroes  in  coopera 
tive  efforts  to  help  America  save  its  soul  in  racial  rela 
tions.  Resolutions  of  the  Woman's  Missionary  Council, 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  1913  deplored 
mob  violence  and  stated  "that,  as  women  engaged  in 
Christian  social  service  for  the  full  redemption  of  our 
social  order,  we  do  protest  in  the  name  of  outraged  jus- 

1  Brawley,  B.  G.,  A  Social  History  of  the  American  Negro, 
p.  60. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  139 

tice,  against  the  savagery  of  lynching."  They  called 
"upon  lawmakers  and  enforcers  of  law  and  upon  all  who 
value  justice  and  righteousness  to  recognize  their  duty  to 
the  law  and  to  the  criminal  classes."  x 

In  August,  1920,  at  Blue  Ridge,  North  Carolina,  sev 
enty  white  leaders  in  conference,  representing  all  the 
larger  church  denominations  working  in  the  South,  called 
"upon  our  fellow-Christians  of  both  races  throughout  the 
South  to  unite  in  a  sincere  and  immediate  effort  to  solve 
our  interracial  problems  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  accord 
ing  to  the  principles  of  the  gospel  and  for  the  highest 
interest  and  benefit  of  all  concerned." 

The  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Col 
ored  People,  which  organization  was  pioneered  and  is 
now  supported  by  many  conscientious  white  people,  stated 
as  its  objective  from  the  outset:  "To  uplift  the  colored 
men  and  women  of  this  country  by  securing  to  them  the 
full  enjoyment  of  their  rights  as  citizens,  justice  in  all 
courts,  and  equality  of  opportunity  everywhere.  ...  It 
has  no  other  belief  than  that  the  best  way  to  uplift  the 
colored  man  is  the  best  way  to  aid  the  white  man  to  peace 
and  social  content." 

The  Georgia  State  Committee  on  Race  Cooperation, 
composed  of  white  women  representing  women's  organi 
zations  of  that  state,  said,  in  1921 :  "We  realize  that  the 
race  question  is  one  of  the  causes  of  lawlessness,  strife, 
and  unrest.  Therefore,  we  propose  to  face  it  squarely, 
honestly,  and  without  prejudice,  that  righteousness  and 
justice  may  be  secured  for  all  the  people."  The  women 
expressed  their  belief  that  "no  falser  appeal  can  be  made 
to  Southern  manhood  than  that  mob  violence  is  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  womanhood;  that  the  brutal  prac 
tise  of  lynching  and  burning  of  human  beings  is  an  ex- 

1  Quoted  in  Hammond,  In  Black  and  White,  p.  65-66. 


I4o  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

pression  of  chivalry."  They  declared  themselves  "for  the 
protection  of  all  womanhood  of  whatever  race."  Gov 
ernor  Dorsey  of  Georgia,  in  1921,  while  citing  instances 
of  outrages  upon  Negroes  in  that  state,  said  he  believed 
that  "the  better  element"  of  white  people  "of  the  whole 
state,  who  constitute  the  majority  of  our  people,  will 
condemn  such  conditions  and  take  the  steps  necessary  to 
correct  them."  Doctor  Edwin  Mims  of  Vanderbilt  Uni 
versity,  Secretary  of  the  Law  and  Order  League  of 
Tennessee,  reported  in  1919  that  public  opinion  in  that 
state  had  been  "crystallized  against  lynchings,  riots,  and 
all  other  forms  of  lawlessness." 

However  much  Negroes  and  white  people,  North  and 
South,  may  take  exception  to  some  points  of  President 
Harding's  speech  at  Birmingham,  Ala.,  October,  1921,  it, 
nevertheless,  marks  a  growing  courage  of  conscience  when 
such  a  speech  by  a  president  of  the  United  States  was 
given  and  received  in  the  heart  of  the  South.  After 
arguing  for  educational,  political,  and  economic  equality 
for  the  Negro,  President  Harding  declared,  "Unless  our 
democracy  is  a  lie,  you  must  stand  for  that  equality."  x 
The  University  Race  Commission,  composed  of  represen 
tatives  from  the  State  Universities  of  the  South,  has  is 
sued  annually  for  five  years  open  letters  to  the  college 
students  of  the  South.  Each  letter  has  dealt  in  a  liberal 
way  with  some  question  of  the  hour.  In  1922  the  letter 
discussed  "interracial  cooperation,"  saying,  in  part:  "No 
fact  is  more  clearly  established  by  history  than  that  hatred 
and  force  only  complicate  race  relations.  The  alternative 
to  this  is  counsel  and  cooperation  among  men  of  character 
and  good-will,  and,  above  all,  of  intelligent  and  compre 
hensive  knowledge  of  the  racial  problem." 

In  1920  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 

1  Reported  in  the  Literary  Digest,  Nov.  19,  1921,  p.  7. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  141 

in  America,  officially  representing  thirty  of  the  strongest 
Protestant  denominations,  set  forth  the  conviction  of  that 
body  in  these  words :  "Racial  understanding  and  coopera 
tion  furnish  the  only  sure  basis  of  race  adjustment  in  a 
democracy.  The  root  of  the  matter  is  the  failure  to  rec 
ognize  the  Negro  as  a  man.  .  .  .  Respect  for  Negro  man 
hood  and  womanhood  is  the  only  basis  for  permanent 
racial  peace.  If  we  talk  democracy,  let  us  act  democ 
racy."  In  1921  this  same  Council  formed  its  Commission 
on  the  Church  and  Race  Relations,  "to  assert  the  suf 
ficiency  of  Christianity  as  the  solution  of  race  relations  in 
America"  and  to  promote  constructive  activities  to  that 
end. 

Influence  of  economic  motives.  Negroes  were 
brought  to  America  as  labor  recruits  when  indentured 
servants  from  Europe  and  Indian  slaves  could  no  longer 
meet  the  growing  demands.  From  the  first  there  were 
those  who  sought  to  prevent  or  overcome  the  evils  of 
Negro  slavery,  but  Americans  were  seeking  cheap  labor, 
and  Europeans  found  profit  in  capturing,  shipping,  and 
selling  Africans  into  the  country.  With  the  rise  of  cot 
ton  culture  on  a  large  scale,  the  profits  made  out  of  the 
business  silenced  or  warped  the  humanitarian  and  the 
religious  conscience  of  the  majority  and  led  many  men 
to  seek  to  defend  the  system.  With  the  decline  of  to 
bacco  and  rice  culture,  slave  labor  would  have  brought 
diminishing  returns  except  for  the  invention  of  the  cotton- 
gin  in  1792,  the  spinning  jenny,  and  the  power  loom. 
These  inventions  enabled  cotton  and  cotton  fabrics  to  be 
produced  in  large  quantities.  Slave  labor  rapidly  rose  in 
productivity  in  Southern  cotton  fields,  and  slavery 
changed  from  a  personal  patriarchal  institution  to  a  wide 
agricultural  system.  Negro  labor  thus  largely  contributed 
to  the  building  up  of  an  agricultural  and  industrial  en- 


142  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

terprise  that  has  since  been  one  of  the  bases  of  American 
prosperity.  Cotton  mills  in  New  and  Old  England  brought 
increasing  wages  to  thousands  of  white  workers  and  mil 
lions  of  dollars'  profit  to  mill  owners,  merchants,  and 
traders.  These  economic  motives  soon  became  strong 
enough  to  challenge  the  religious  and  humanitarian  im 
pulses,  seeking  freedom  for  the  slave  through  the  eman 
cipation  organizations  and  activities  mentioned  in  the 
preceding  section.  The  issue  then  became  a  tense  one 
between  the  flowering  ideals  of  the  young  democracy  and 
the  system  of  enforced  labor  of  the  "Cotton  Kingdom." 
Before  the  settlement  of  the  question,  native  communities1 
of  a  large  part  of  the  African  continent  were  destroyed, 
whole  regions  were  depopulated,  native  organizations  were 
disrupted,  African  jungles  were  lined  with  bleached  hu 
man  bones,  millions  of  souls  were  snatched  from  Africa, 
many  of  them  to  die  in  the  "middle  passage"  of  the  slave- 
trade,  a  bloody,  fratricidal  war  broke  upon  America,  and 
a  difficult  race  situation  resulted,  to  perplex  the  present 
generation.  Conscience,  for  the  sake  of  humanity  and  re 
ligion,  paid  the  price  in  blood  and  treasure  and  is  to-day 
trying  to  control  the  situation  through  mission  institu 
tions,  publicly  supported  schools,  and  in  other  constructive 
ways. 

The  present  industrial  relationship  between  employer 
and  employee  is  perhaps  the  greatest  problem  of  brother 
hood  among  white  men.  The  Negro  in  America  is,  to  a 
large  extent,  a  common  laborer  employed  by  white  em 
ployers  and  cooperating  or  competing  with  white  work 
men.  Between  him  and  his  white  employer  are  many 
of  the  barriers  which  divide  white  employers  and  em 
ployees  plus  racial  mistrust  on  the  one  hand  and  lack  of 
appreciation  on  the  other.  It  is  very  difficult,  if  at  all 
possible,  to  divide  the  problems  of  race  from  the  economic 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  143 

problems.  As  many  a  European  lord  thought  of  his  peas 
ant  laborers,  and  some  industrial  employers  think  of  their 
"hands,"  so,  many  white  men  think  of  Negroes  as  filling 
their  ends  in  life  by  contributing  to  production.1  Many 
of  the  plantations  of  the  Southern  United  States,  of  the 
West  Indies,  and  of  parts  of  South  and  East  Africa  are 
conducted  upon  such  an  assumption.2 

Some  of  the  most  intense  race  friction  may  be  found 
where  the  races  come  in  contact  in  the  field  of  industry. 
Any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  circumstances  leading 
up  to  the  riots  in  East  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Coatesville, 
and  Springfield  will  recognize  the  menace  which  disjointed 
labor  conditions  hold  for  race  relations.  Local  labor 
unions  have,  themselves,  not  always  been  guiltless  of  us 
ing  race  prejudice  to  restrict  Negroes  in  industry.  The 
unemployed  Negro  is  often  assessed  with  an  excessive 
share  of  the  crime  wave  which  accompanies  general  un 
employment,  and  the  Negroes  who  are  employed  are  some 
times  targets  for  jealous  unemployed  white  men.  Broth 
erly  contact  and  understanding  sometimes  enable  both 
sides  to  see  that  there  is  a  common  interest  between 
them,  that  hunger  is  neither  white  nor  black  and  that  fair 
play  requires  all  to  share  alike  the  pinch  or  prosperity 
of  general  conditions.  In  agriculture,  also,  friction  some 
times  arises.  Under  ante-bellum  conditions  there  were 
two  main  economic  classes,  planter  and  slave,  in  the  black 
belt's  richer  regions.  To-day  white  people  and  Negro 
people  are  divided  into  owners,  tenants,  and  farm  labor- 

1  These  statements  may  seem   dogmatic,   but  they  summarize 
considerable   evidence.      See    Stone,   Alfred   H.,    The   American 
Race  Problem;  Olivier  Sydney,  White  Capital  and  Coloured  La 
bor,  and  others. 

2  Evans,  Maurice,  Black  and  White  in  South  East  Africa,  pp. 
26-183;  Black  and   White  in  the  Southern  States,  pp.  224-230; 
Woofter,  T.  J.,  Negro  Migration,  Changes  in  Rural  Organisation 
and  Population  of  the  Cotton  Belt,  pp..  29-42,  82-91. 


144  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ers.1  The  difficulties  increase  from  the  fact  that  Negroes, 
as  well  as  Caucasians,  are  either  farm  owners,  many  of 
whom  are  prosperous,  or  farm  tenants.  Friction  between 
the  white  population  and  prosperous  Negroes  or  those 
struggling  toward  high  economic  standing  often  manifests 
itself,2  sometimes  going  to  such  extremes  that  it  leads  to 
murder  and  to  the  burning  of  Negro  homes,  churches,  and 
schools. 

Attitudes  toward  education  have  been  greatly  influenced 
by  such  economic  motives.  It  is  an  open  secret  that  some 
of  the  favor  shown  to  agricultural  and  industrial  educa 
tion  for  Negroes  was  on  the  assumption  that  it  made 
better  servants  or  more  profitable  workers.  This  has,  at 
times,  greatly  confused  the  Negro  people  themselves  and 
often  led  them  to  overlook  the  intrinsic  worth  of  such 
training  and  to  oppose  it  from  fear  that  it  would  in  some 
way  keep  them  in  subjection.  Opposition  of  white  people 
to  other  forms  of  education  sometimes  arose  from  the 
feeling  excited  by  economic  fears  that  to  educate  a  Negro 
was  to  spoil  a  field  hand,  a  servant,  or  a  laborer. 

Survivals  from  the  past.  Although  nearly  sixty  years 
have  passed  since  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro,  there 
is  still  in  American  thinking  much  that  was  brought  down 
from  slavery.  However  kindly  disposed  individual  own 
ers  may  have  been,  that  institution  denied  full  personality 
to  the  slave.  As  Murphy  says :  "This  bondage  fixed  in 
stinctively  a  limit  beyond  which  the  Negro  must  not  as 
cend;  it  fixed  a  limit  below  which  the  Negro  must  not 
fall." 3  This  attitude  bore  especially  heavily  upon  the 
aspiring  Negro,  pierced  through  as  it  often  was  with 
the  fear  that  if  a  Negro  were  admitted  to  the  treasures  of 

1  See  Woofter,  T.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  52-73. 

2  Murphy,   Edward   G.,   Problems  of   the  Present  South,  pp. 
154-157. 

3  Murphy,  E.  G.,  work  cited,  p.  163. 


SHACKS  ix  A  TYPICAL  NECRO  CITY  COLOXY  AND  A  COMM.UXITY  OF 
NEW  HOMES  OF  NECRO  WORKERS  IN  A  SOUTHERN  CITY 

Improvements  in  housing  and  neighborhood  conditions  help 
not  only  the  Negro  workers,  but  add  to  the  health  and  happiness 
of  every  person  in  the  community. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  145 

knowledge  and  liberty,  the  day  might  come  when,  because 
of  his  knowledge,  he  might  no  longer  submit.  Denmark 
Vesey  in  revolt  in  South  Carolina  in  1822,  Nat  Turner  in 
Virginia  in  1831,  to  say  nothing  of  other  insurrections  and 
of  thousands  of  individuals  who  resisted  punishment  and 
ran  away  to  free  territory,  gave  ground  for  such  appre 
hensions. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  did  not  destroy  this 
idea.  It  persists  to-day  among  many  white  Americans, 
North  and  South,  who  denounce  the  injustices  to  the 
Negro  and  personally  may  show  him  great  kindness  and 
consideration,  yet  who  do  not  think  of  him  in  terms  of 
capacity  for  full  personality.  Thus,  men  and  women  who 
think  of  themselves  as  good  Americans  will  argue  that 
the  Negro  is  all  right,  but  that  it  was  ordained  of  God 
that  he  should  be  a  "hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of 
water."  Or  again,  they  may  grant  that  the  Negro  must 
be  given  opportunities,  but  declare  at  the  same  time  that 
he  must  be  made  "to  know  his  place."  Such  attitudes 
were  often  not  consciously  chosen.  They  were  absorbed 
by  the  individual  as  he  grew  up,  just  as  he  absorbed  his 
other  feelings  and  prejudices.  Consciously  or  uncon 
sciously,  however,  these  people  have  adopted  attitudes 
which  survive  from  a  past  condition  and  system  of  servi 
tude. 

The  legal  protection  guaranteed  to  slaves  varied  in  the 
different  states.  The  courts  dealt  with  the  most  serious 
crimes  committed  by  Negroes,  such  as  murder,  riots,  and 
uprisings,  but  most  of  the  crimes  of  slaves  were  dealt  with 
by  master  or  overseer  without  reference  to  the  courts. 
The  habit  of  dealing  with  public  conduct  of  Negroes  by 
other  than  legal  procedure  has  not  passed  away  but  is 
becoming  recognized  as  an  outworn  method  of  racial 
contacts.  At  the  present  time  in  many  communities  the 


I46  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Negro  is  still  dealt  with  by  vigilantes,  by  self-appointed 
groups,  or  by  individuals  who  chastise  without  court  pro 
cedure  as  alleged  misdemeanors  or  crimes  seem  to  the 
executioners  to  merit.  White  men  of  influence  often  in 
tercede  with  the  courts  and  secure  "their  Negroes"  such 
consideration  as  white  influence  commands.  Courts  are 
not  unknown  in  which  accused  Negroes  escape  punish 
ment,  not  in  proportion  to  their  guilt  or  innocence,  but  in 
accordance  with  the  standing  of  the  white  men  who  ap 
peal  to  the  courts  in  their  behalf.1  Many  "Black  Laws" 
were  passed  between  1865-1868  to  deal  with  occupations, 
labor  contracts,  apprenticeship,  and  vagrancy  of  Negroes. 
These  statutes  attempted  to  fix  by  law  after  emancipa 
tion  the  conditions,  largely  with  reference  to  labor,  not 
far  removed  from  the  previous  system  in  the  belief  that 
compulsion  was  necessary  to  make  the  newly  emancipated 
people  work.  To  many  Negroes,  freedom  did  at  first,  of 
course,  mean  ceasing  from  labor ;  but  the  stern  commands 
of  hunger  and  cold  were  stronger  than  legal  codes  or 
court  orders.  Vagrancy  was  made  a  part  of  the  com 
pulsory  labor  system  by  such  devices  as,  for  example, 
the  laws  of  one  state  which  provided  that  the  sheriff 
should  hire  to  the  person  who  paid  his  fine  and  costs  any 
Negro  who  did  not  pay  the  fine  imposed  for  vagrancy. 
Similar  penalties  were  legal  for  breach  of  contract  and 
for  other  offenses.2 

Survivals  of  this  view  of  Negro  labor  have  persisted 
in  some  plantation  sections  in  the  customary  way  of 
settlement  between  landlord  and  tenant.  One  white  man 
said  that  some  of  the  landlords  in  his  district  regarded 

1  For  graphic   description   of  this,   see   Hammond,   L.   H.,   In 
Black  and  White,  pp.  46-55. 

2  See   Stephenson,   Gilbert  T.,  Race  Distinctions  in  American 
Law,  pp.  46-63 ;  Merriam,  George  S.,  The  Negro  and  the  Na 
tion,  pp.  367-393. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  14? 

any  surplus  handed  Negro  tenants  as  "tips"  rather  than 
wages  due.  Many  plantation  tenants  work  year  in  and 
year  out  with  little  knowledge  of  what  they  produce. 
There  are  often  no  written  contracts.  The  landlord  keeps 
the  books  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  settlement  is  made 
according  to  his  accounts,  thus  there  is  no  check  upon 
error  or  subterfuge.  In  many  cases  this  means  that  the 
Negro  gets  only  his  meager  food,  clothing,  and  shelter. 
If  the  landlord  desires  exorbitant  profits  or  encourages 
thriftless  tenants,  the  end  of  the  year  finds  the  Negro  with 
a  sufficient  debt  to  make  it  possible  to  prevent  his  leav 
ing,  since  in  some  localities  it  is  against  the  law  or  custom 
for  Negroes  to  leave  a  plantation  if  they  are  in  debt.1 
There  are  many  plantations  where  fairness  is  shown  the 
tenant,  even  shiftless  ones  being  dealt  with  leniently,  and 
the  bad  conditions  are  passing  away,  but  public  opinion, 
colored  by  the  surviving  customs  of  the  past,  has  been 
slow  to  change  them.  In  other  fields  of  labor,  this  sur 
viving  idea  serves  to  keep  wages  down  on  the  erroneous 
theory  that  Negroes  do  not  need  the  same  standards  of 
pay  as  other  workers  because  they  can  live  more  cheaply 
or  because,  as  other  workers,  some  of  them  will  loaf  if 
they  get  more  pay  than  their  bare  creature  needs  require. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  employers  have  adopted  a  pro 
gressive  policy  of  stimulating  the  wants  and  standards  of 
living  of  Negroes  to  give  them  incentives  to  regular  work. 
Attitudes  due  to  ideas  of  race.  The  people  whose  an 
cestors  lived  in  Northwestern  Europe  along  the  North 
Sea  and  on  the  rivers,  many  of  which  flow  into  the  sea, 
have  made  a  conquest,  military  and  economic,  of  much  of 

1  Woofter,  T.  J.,  work  cited,  pp.  85-88 ;  Twenty-second  Annual 
Report  Commissioner  of  Labor,  pp.  129,  133-135,  146-147;  Ham 
mond,  L.  H.,  In  Black  and  White,  pp.  52-58.  The  writers  should 
add  that  many  personal  visits  have  been  made  to  plantation  dis 
tricts. 


148  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

the  rest  of  the  world.  They  govern  several  hundred  mil 
lions  directly  and  control  by  mandates  and  "spheres  of  in 
fluence"  a  large  part  of  the  remainder.  Out  of  this  group 
or  racial  experience,  and  the  power  and  prestige  flowing 
from  it,  has  developed  the  popular  idea  of  racial  superi 
ority.  This  increase  of  power  and  prestige  of  a  people 
who  hold  "dominion  over  palm  and  pine"  has  naturally 
bred  pride  in  their  courage,  knowledge,  wealth,  and  cul 
ture  that  led  them  into  such  influence  over  the  world. 
This  idea  of  superiority  of  Caucasian  stocks  has  been 
made  a  popular  standard  by  which  other  groups  are  meas 
ured.1  The  white  people  of  this  age,  of  course,  have  not 
been  the  only  ones  to  hold  such  an  idea  and  there  are 
among  them  many  who  see  its  limitations.  Kipling,  the 
great  modern  prophet,  has  pointed  out  in  his  "Reces 
sional"  the  great  responsibilities  and  dangers  to  the  strong 
who  hold  controlling  world  power.  The  view  of  racial 
superiority  has  been  held  by  peoples  from  the  Assyrians 
and  Egyptians  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  when  they 
achieved  success  and  wielded  great  power  over  subject 
peoples.2  Writers  and  others  who  express  this  idea  argue 
that  the  governments  of  self-governing  white  men  can 
neither  be  the  possession  of  another  race,  nor  share  their 
responsibility  of  control  with  other  races.  In  other  words, 
as  it  relates  to  the  Negro  in  America,  he  is  to  be  perma 
nently  a  sub-citizen.8  This  kind  of  an  attitude  is  back 

1  Kennedy,  Sinclair,   The  Pan-Angles;  a  consideration  of  the 
Federation  of  the  Seven  English  Speaking  Nations;   Stoddard, 
Lothrop,  The  Rising  Tide  of  Color  Against  White  World  Su 
premacy. 

2  This  idea  is  known  in  sociology  as  "ethnocentrism,"  Keller, 
A.  G.,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  57-59. 

3  Hammond,  L.  H.,  work  cited,  pp.  19-20 ;  Murphy,  E.  G.,  The 
Basis  of  Ascendency,  Chapters  II,  III,  VIII;  Mecklin,  John  M., 
Democracy  and  Race  Friction,  pp.  I,  247-270;  and  popular  maga 
zine  discussions  on  America,  Western  civilization,  and  world  af 
fairs. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  149 

of  such  remarks  as  that  of  an  attorney,  prominent  in  his 
local  community,  who  said,  "We  give  the  Negro  as  much 
justice  as  it  is  safe  for  him  to  have." 

In  two  states  and  two  hundred  and  forty-eight  counties 
of  the  South  in  1910  the  Negro  population  outnumbered 
the  white.  In  the  minds  of  many  white  citizens  in  these 
states  and  counties  as  well  as  elsewhere,  there  is  always 
present  the  possibility  that  Negroes  may  seek  to  come 
into  control  of  public  affairs.  Many  feel  about  the  Negro 
in  politics  in  terms  of  the  newly  freed  slaves  of  recon 
struction  days,  although  some  see  that  this  older  policy 
cannot  meet  conditions  of  the  new  day.1  On  the  whole, 
however,  there  is  fear  of  the  large  Negro  population  re 
tarded  2  in  ignorance  and  poverty,  which  the  lack  of  public 
means  of  education  and  development  has  continued  from 
decade  to  decade.  Thus  a  solid  political  organization  has 
been  produced  and  even  the  intelligent  Negro  who  asks 
for  the  exercise  of  political  rights  and  privileges  on  terms 
such  as  are  offered  to  all  is  often  barred.  This  fear, 
sometimes  incited  by  unscrupulous  leaders,  has  been  en 
couraged  by  the  fact  that  the  Negro  vote  has  usually 
been  a  "bloc"  vote.  Conditions  have  made  it  so  that 
Negro  and  white  voters  largely  divide  by  race,  with  little 
division  among  themselves  on  issues  and  candidates. 

There  are  thoughtful  white  people  who  believe  that  the 
Negro  can  develop  into  the  higher  things  of  civilization, 
but  they  hold,  however,  that  America  is  designed  for 
white  people;  that  to  allow  Negroes  to  share  fully  in 
American  life  is  to  imperil  American  institutions  and  to 
lay  upon  the  Negro  responsibilities  which,  as  a  race,  he 
is  unprepared  to  sustain.  The  choice,  as  they  see  it,  is  for 
the  Negro  either  to  go  to  some  other  part  of  the  world 

1  Murphy,  E.  G.,  The  Basis  of  Ascendency,  pp.  57-61. 

2  Murphy,  E.  G.,  work  cited,  pp.  51-54. 


150  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

or  accept  in  America  those  limitations  and  restrictions 
upon  his  opportunities  which  they  regard  as  necessary  to 
keep  America  a  "white  man's  country."  A  writer  re 
cently  concluded  a  discussion  of  such  racial  exclusiveness 
as  follows :  "We  all  know  how  unreasoning  and  unyield 
ing  race  prejudice  is.  The  individual  finds  himself  swal 
lowed  up  and  swept  on  by  the  swift-flowing  currents  of 
racial  hatreds  and  class  animosities.  Herein  lie  the  deep- 
seated  causes  of  war,  whether  it  be  between  the  Teuton 
and  Anglo-Saxon  in  Flanders  Field,  or  between  Ethiopian 
and  Caucasian  in  Tulsa,  Oklahoma."  1 

Corollary  to  the  notion  of  superiority  of  the  white  race 
is  that  of  inferiority  of  other  races.  Here,  a  distinction 
between  superiority  and  inferiority  of  circumstances  in 
contrast  with  potential  capacity  should  be  pointed  out. 
No  candid  views  of  the  facts  can  dispute  that  the  Cau 
casian  race  is  now  dominant  in  power  through  military 
and  naval  force,  in  wealth  through  possession  of  the 
world's  riches,  and  in  intelligence  through  the  opportu 
nity  to  assimilate  and  develop  the  mental  experience  and 
property  of  all  who  have  gone  before.  From  the  experi 
ence  in  these  advantages  the  white  group  mind  passes 
to  the  doctrine  of  superior  capacity,  although  the  scientific 
and  philosophic  writer  may  or  may  not  do  so.2  Other 
races,  especially  the  Negro,  not  now  so  favored  in  cir 
cumstances  are  usually  regarded  by  public  opinion  of 
the  white  world  as  lacking  in  potential  power  of  commen 
surate  achievement.  The  Japanese  in  California  on  ac 
count  of  difference  in  color,  types  of  feelings  and  habits 
of  action,  economic  competition,  and  other  things  are 

1  Pritchard,  N.  C,  "Analyzing  the  Race  Problem,"   Christian 
Century,  August  n,  1921. 

2  Mecklin,   Democracy   and  Race  Friction,   pp.   47-82 ;    Smith, 
William  B.,  The  Color  Line,  pp.  29-74,  ITI-I57;  Johnston,  Harry 
H.,  The  Negro  in  the  New  World,  preface. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  151 

judged  from  this  standpoint  by  the  average  white  man.1 
While  Lothrop  Stoddard  in  his  Rising  Tide  of  Color  has 
failed  to  adhere  to  good  science  in  his  facts  and  argu 
ments,  he  has,  nevertheless,  voiced  the  attitude  of  a  great 
many  white  people  toward  other  races.  The  lack  of  es 
teem  in  which  Negroes  in  America  are  held  is  forcibly 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  some  states  the  courts  have 
decided  that  to  call  a  white  person  a  Negro  is  such  an 
injury  that  action  for  slander  may  be  taken  and  damages 
recoverable  on  the  ground  that  this  word  is  damaging  to 
such  white  person  is  his  trade,  business,  or  profession.2 
In  1888  the  Supreme  Court  of  Louisiana  said,  "It  cannot 
be  disputed  that  charging  a  white  man  with  being  a  Negro 
is  calculated  to  inflict  injury  or  damage."  In  Georgia  in 
1904  a  court  rendered  a  decision  with  the  same  import. 
The  other  side  of  the  matter  has  recently  come  to  the  sur 
face  in  a  court  complaint  brought  by  one  Negro  against 
another  who  had  charged  him  with  being  a  white  man. 
This  disparagement  finds  increased  expression  because  of 
the  long  experience  with  the  Negro  slaves  in  America, 
separated  from  their  African  culture  and  ethnic  con 
tacts.  Inferiority  of  the  Negro  is  argued  from  history 
on  the  theory  that  natives  in  Africa  had  neither  political 
organization,  industrial  or  artistic  development,  religious 
systems,  nor  ethical  inspiration. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  the  informa 
tion  brought  to  light  by  explorers,  travelers,  and  mis 
sionaries,  and  by  a  number  of  natives  educated  in  Europe 
and  America  who  are  beginning  to  interpret  their  people 
to  the  world.  They  are  showing  that  prior  to  the  slave 

1  Millis,  H.  A.,  The  Japanese  Problem  in  the   United  States, 
pp.  197-250;   Gulick,   Sidney  L.,   The  American  Japanese  Prob 
lem,  pp.  53-76. 

2  Cases  and  facts  cited  in  Stephenson,  Gilbert  T.,  Race  Dictinc- 
tions  in  American  Laiv,  pp.  26-33. 


152  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

trade  begun  by  the  Portuguese,  continued  by  the  Dutch 
and  Spanish,  and  brought  to  its  culmination  by  the  Eng 
lish,  there  was  an  African  civilization  in  Nigeria,  Gold 
Coast,  Benin,  Mossiland,  Timbuctu,  and  in  other  areas. 
Space  does  not  allow  review  here  of  the  increasing  evi 
dence  and  arguments  of  such  authorities  as  Leo  Fro- 
benius,  Ling  Roth,  Dr.  George  A.  Reisner  of  Harvard, 
Flinders  Petrie,  and  others  that  there  was  a  very  high 
type  of  culture  in  North  and  Central  Africa,  possibly  in 
pre-classical  and  very  probably  pre-Christian  times.  Any 
one  wishing  to  learn  about  the  past  achievements  of 
Negroes  in  Africa  will  be  well  rewarded  in  his  search 
by  the  evidence  of  original  steps,  such  as  the  earliest 
smelting  of  iron,  and  of  arts  and  culture  adapted  from 
Arabian  origins.  Writers  give  accounts  of  ancient  Afri 
can  rulers,  governments,  religions  and  customs,  architec 
ture,  tomb-building,  production  of  arts  and  crafts,  such 
as  carved  elephant  tusks,  ivory  armlets,  stone  images, 
etc.,  glass  and  porcelain  objects,  remarkable  terra  cottas, 
and  exquisite  metal  castings.1  There  is  also  a  well-sifted 
set  of  facts  that  Negroes  from  the  Guinea  Coast,  West 
Africa,  had  made  visits  to  America  before  Christopher 
Columbus.2 

With  reference  to  the  Negro  in  America  to-day  in  rela 
tion  to  this  point,  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  a  discerning 
white  Southerner,  expresses  his  impression  from  an  exam 
ination  of  some  of  the  facts : 3  "Seeing  the  Negro  loafer 

iprobenius,  Leo,  The  Voice  of  Africa;  "The  Material  Cul 
ture  of  Ancient  Nigeria,"  by  Wm.  L.  Hansberry,  Journal  of 
Negro  History,  Vol.  VI,  No.  3,  pp.  261-295;  Brawley,  Benjamin, 
Social  History  of  the  American  Negro,  pp.  1-9;  and  works  of 
other  authorities  mentioned  above. 

2  Wiener,  Leo,  Africa  and  the  Discovery  of  America,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
34,  178,  191-196. 

3  Murphy,   Edgar   Gardner,  Problems   of  the  Present 
pp.  167-168. 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  153 

on  the  streets,  the  Negro  man  or  woman  in  domestic 
service,  the  Negro  laborer  in  the  fields,  is  not  seeing  the 
Negro.  It  is  seeing  the  Negro  on  one  side.  It  is  seeing 
the  Negro  before  achievement  begins,  often  before 
achievement — the  achievement  which  the  world  esteems — 
is  possible.  Knowing  the  white  man  under  these  condi 
tions  would  not  be  knowing  the  white  man.  Yet  this  side 
of  the  Negro  is  usually  the  only  side  of  which  the  white 
community  has  direct  and  accurate  knowledge.  It  is  the 
knowledge  of  industrial  contact  upon  its  lower  plane.  It 
is  not  the  knowledge  of  reciprocal  obligations.  And  at 
the  point  where  this  lower  contact  ceases,  at  the  point 
where  the  Negro's  real  efficiency  begins  and  he  passes 
out  of  domestic  service  or  unskilled  employment  into  a 
larger  world,  the  white  community  loses  its  personal  and 
definite  information — the  Negro  passes  into  the  unknown. 
As  the  Negro  attains  progress,  he,  by  the  very  fact  of 
progress,  removes  the  tangible  evidence  of  progress  from 
the  immediate  observation  of  the  white  community. 

"The  inadequacy  of  the  picture  is  due  to  subjective 
as  well  as  to  objective  causes.  A  partly  mistaken  con 
ception  of  the  Negro  has  resulted  from  the  fact  that  the 
white  world  which  now  sees  the  Negro  habitually,  which 
judges  him  and  speaks  of  him  most  constantly,  is  not 
infrequently  the  white  world  at  its  worst.  How  large  a 
number  of  the  white  world,  upon  its  educated  side,  has 
ever  really  seen  the  life  of  a  Negro  home,  or  the  life 
of  the  Negro  school,  or  the  life  of  the  saner  Negro 
church?" 

The  philosophy  of  racial  relations  that  arose  out  of 
world  power  and  slave  degradation  led  logically  to  strong 
customs  and  laws  against  intermixture  of  the  two  races. 
This  is  the  point  at  which  it  is  most  difficult  for  Negroes 
to  understand  the  attitude  of  white  people  and  for  white 


154  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

people  to  understand  the  attitude  of  Negroes.  The  white 
people  usually  suspect  that  the  Negroes  very  greatly  de 
sire  to  be  white,  and  that  they  will  avail  themselves  of 
any  opportunity  that  is  offered  of  losing  their  racial 
identity.  In  the  extremity  of  their  views  such  white 
persons  interpret  every  effort  of  Negroes  to  increase  their 
advantages  as  an  expression  of  a  desire  on  their  part  to 
become  white.  To  them  the  desire  of  a  Negro  to  be  a 
man  is  the  desire  to  be  a  white  man. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  closest  observation  shows  that 
the  tendency  among  Negroes,  high  and  low,  has  been  in 
the  opposite  direction,  increased  in  recent  decades  by 
growing  wealth,  intelligence,  racial  consciousness,  and 
racial  self-respect.  If  white  people  should  to-day  ask 
Negroes  whether  they  want  racial  intermixture,  they 
would  receive  an  emphatic  denial  from  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  thousand  Negroes.  There  is  now 
a  mass  movement  in  America  and  elsewhere  among 
Negroes  expressing  itself  in  several  organizations  to 
esteem  things  Negroid  and  to  pursue  ends  racial  and 
African.  This  has  even  found  extremes  in  hostile  anti- 
white  propaganda  and  activities  such  as  "Africa  for  the 
Africans,"  "The  African  Blood  Brotherhood"  and  the 
like.  Negroes  feel  a  growing  pride  of  race.  What  they 
are  contending  for  is  that  men  shall  not  be  despised  and 
restricted  in  opportunity  because  they  are  black,  and  that 
achievement  and  character  shall  be  the  basis  of  admission 
to  the  benefits  of  American  life. 

Here  arises  one  of  the  anomalies  of  race  relations  for 
which  Negroes  do  not  find  any  excuse  for  the  past  or  in 
the  present.  In  practically  all  states  where  there  have 
been  Negroes  in  any  considerable  numbers,  mulattoes 
have  multiplied  since  the  early  days.  The  law  and  custom 
even  now  give  no  protection  to  the  wronged  Negro 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  155 

mother  and,  as  was  the  slave  custom  from  colonial  days, 
count  the  half-breed  offspring  by  kinship  to  her  and  not 
to  their  father.1  Twenty-six  states  had  such  laws  in 
1910,  many  of  them  antedating  emancipation.2  So  far 
as  facts  can  be  ascertained,  Negroes  have  not  sought  or 
argued  for  amalgamation,  but  what  they  are  clamoring 
against  is  that  law  and  custom  shall  not  render  black 
women  and  girls  defenseless  with  nameless  offspring, 
while  the  white  fathers  escape. 

Effects  of  principles  and  ideals  of  democracy.  From 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  proclamation  of 
America's  entrance  into  the  World  War,  there  have  been 
gradually  evolving  certain  principles  which  Americans 
consider  fundamental  to  our  developing  democracy. 
\Vhenever  the  issue  of  Negro  welfare  has  been  squarely 
faced  in  its  relation  to  these  principles,  white  Americans 
have  acceded  to  the  attitude  that  they  should  accord  to 
Negro  Americans  a  share  in  the  rights  based  upon  these 
fundamental  principles.  Professing  such  principles,  they 
have  been  led  by  a  strong  urge  for  consistency  to  the 
view  that  these  principles  must  apply  to  all  or  they  are 
true  for  none.  Among  the  principles  so  regarded  in 
America  are  equality  of  all  citizens  before  the  law,  free 
dom  of  assembly,  freedom  of  speech,  the  right  to  trial 
by  a  jury  of  peers,  the  right  to  vote,  and  freedom  of 
movement  from  place  to  place.  Abraham  Lincoln,  to 
express  the  relation  of  the  races  to  the  welfare  of  the 
nation,  quoted,  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand/'  applying  the  axiom  to  mean  that  unless  the  free 
dom  of  white  America  was  extended  to  the  black  part 
of  the  nation,  liberty  for  the  white  part  would  not  be  se- 

1Brawley,  B.  G.,  work  cited,  pp.  24-31. 

2  Stephenson,  Gilbert  T.,  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law, 
pp.  78-89. 


156  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

cure.  During  the  years  that  have  followed,  this  view 
has  gained  larger  and  larger  place  in  the  settlement  of 
the  relations  of  the  two  races  in  industry,  in  education, 
in  government,  and  in  other  phases  of  our  common  life. 
Although  sometimes  in  the  minority,  there  has  been,  in 
season  and  out,  a  body  of  Americans  who  have  labored 
to  keep  this  view  and  attitude  before  the  nation.  They 
have  urged  that  the  general  welfare  cannot  be  attained 
for  some  unless  its  benefits  and  responsibilities  are  shared 
by  all. 

The  white  race  and  the  interracial  mind.  With  such 
feelings  and  attitudes  about  their  own  race,  and  ways 
of  acting  toward  the  Negro  race,  white  Americans  face 
the  future  and  seek  world  leadership,  economic,  political, 
and  spiritual.  As  a  part  of  the  movement  for  world  lead 
ership,  a  larger  appreciation  of  other  races  has  been  de 
veloping  slowly  but  surely  in  the  minds  of  many  Ameri 
cans.  The  presence  of  the  Japanese  and  Chinese  at  the 
Washington  Conference  on  Limitation  of  Armament, 
sharing  rights  and  responsibilities  with  other  races,  was 
a  step  toward  that  appreciation  of  other  peoples  by  the 
white  race,  which  is  becoming  the  groundwork  of  good 
will  for  the  future  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  world. 
The  relation  of  Negro  and  white  Americans  is  being 
affected  by  these  world  movements. 

The  idea  that  the  American  Negro  is  a  person  and  an 
end  in  himself,  to  be  educated  and  developed  and  to  be 
come  a  participant  in  all  that  makes  life  and  liberty  glori 
ous  in  America  will,  although  gradually,  replace  the  idea 
of  the  Negro  as  only  a  servant.  One  step  toward  this 
end  is  the  growing  appreciation  and  recognition  of  the 
qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which  the  Negro  people  have 
shown  and  which,  when  further  developed,  will  make 
them  a  greater  asset  to  America.  In  agriculture  and  in- 


THE  TREND  OF  THE  WHITE  WORLD  157 

dustry  the  human  elements  which  include  the  Negro  work 
ers  are  gaining  the  front  of  the  stage.  In  the  field  of 
government,  self-determination,  now  a  matter  of  discus 
sion,  is  gradually  becoming  a  principle  of  action  applied 
to  non-white  groups  and  races.  As  white  men  learn  by 
experience, — as  in  the  case  of  the  results  of  equality  for 
women, — the  fears  of  harmful  effects  resulting  from  their 
change  of  ways  and  attitude  toward  Negroes  begin  to 
disappear.  Then  the  idea  of  the  interdependence  of  all 
men,  the  weak  and  the  strong,  begins  to  penetrate  the 
mind  of  all.  The  principle  of  the  Golden  Rule  is  be 
coming  a  code  of  practical,  everyday  affairs,  the  wild 
tongues  of  boasting  and  prejudice  are  being  silenced,  and 
there  is  developing  a  revaluation  of  the  Divine  require 
ment  to  do  justly  and  to  love  mercy. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  Way  to  Interracial  Peace 

THE  preceding  chapters  have  attempted  to  define  the 
task  and  to  describe  present  conditions  and  relations  of 
the  two  races  in  the  main  ways  of  life  where  they  meet 
and  where  adjustment  is  necessary.  It  now  remains  to 
discuss  the  fundamental  principles  of  amicable  adjust 
ment,  to  point  out  the  method  of  personal  contacts  and 
the  agencies  through  which  they  may  be  made  for  the 
advancement  of  both  races  together,  to  describe  lines  of 
educational  publicity  needed,  and  to  outline  the  ideals 
toward  which  they  travel.  The  ideals  of  justice,  of  law 
and  order,  of  American  freedom  of  speech,  press,  and 
representation,  of  courtesy,  of  the  obligation  of  the  strong 
to  help  the  weak,  of  respect  for  all  personality,  and  of 
constructive  cooperation  on  the  basis  of  the  brotherhood 
of  mankind  comprise  the  goal.  Besides  the  economic 
forces  described  in  Chapter  II,  the  school  as  the  avenue 
of  education,  the  church  as  the  avenue  of  religion,  the 
home  as  the  avenue  of  the  family,  the  state  as  the  avenue 
of  government,  and  the  voluntary  agencies  auxiliary  to 
those  organizations  are  the  highways  through  which  the 
present  and  succeeding  generations  must  pass  toward 
that  goal.  It  will  not  suffice  that  the  Few  of  each  race 
see  the  goal;  they  and  the  Many  must  also  know  the 
road. 

Racial  contacts  lead  to  racial  good-will.  In  Nash 
ville,  Tenn.,  in  1914,  a  disastrous  fire  destroyed  the  homes 
of  hundreds  of  families,  white  and  Negro,  the  latter  con 
siderably  in  the  majority.  Led  by  the  Commercial  Club, 
the  strongest  organization  of  white  business  men,  and 
by  the  Negro  Board  of  Trade,  with  similar  irfluence 

158 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  159 

among  Negro  business  men,  the  representatives  of  many 
white  and  Negro  organizations  rallied  together  to  meet 
the  emergency.  They  formed  cooperative  committees  of 
white  and  Negro  members  and  a  joint  staff  of  white 
and  Negro  investigators  and  visitors.  The  city  govern 
ment  through  the  charities  commission  and  the  police 
department  joined  hands  with  the  cooperating  citizens. 

Families  in  distress  were  visited  by  investigators  who 
carefully  ascertained  their  needs.  Household  goods  and 
supplies  were  bought  in  car-load  lots  with  money  con 
tributed  liberally  by  hundreds  of  donors  of  both  races. 
.Working  zealously  together  for  about  two  months,  these 
cooperating  neighbors  reestablished  about  five  hundred 
white  and  Negro  families  in  houses,  provided  them  with 
necessities  for  starting  housekeeping  again,  and,  finally, 
visited  each  reestablished  household  to  see  that  all  had 
been  well  done  and  to  deliver  a  parting  message  of  good 
cheer  and  good-will. 

This  and  other  community  activities  were  parts  of 
nearly  ten  years  of  racial  cooperation  in  meeting  com 
munity  needs.  Starting  in  one  of  the  needy  Negro  neigh 
borhoods  with  a  little  settlement  house,  prophetically 
called  "Bethlehem  House/'  founded  and  fostered  through 
the  joint  efforts  of  Southern  white  women  of  the  Wom 
an's  Missionary  Council,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  who  had  been  interested  by  "Mother"  Sawyer,  a 
saintly  Negro  woman,  and  of  the  Social  Science  Depart 
ment  of  Fisk  University,  a  leading  Negro  college  founded 
and  supported  by  Northern  churches  and  philanthropists, 
such  racial  cooperation  had  grown  until  it  had  spread  its 
influence  into  many  avenues  of  the  city's  life.  Begun  as 
the  earnest  effort  of  a  few  men  and  women  of  the  two 
races  to  serve  the  needs  of  their  neglected  Negro  neigh 
bors,  it  spread  to  include  white  and  Negro  colleges,  five 


160  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

white  and  Negro  church  denominations,  white  and  Negro 
commercial  organizations,  and  departments  of  the  city 
government.  They  cooperated  in  efforts  for  better  hous 
ing,  wholesome  recreation,  vocational  instruction,  employ 
ment  placement,  home  improvement,  and  for  protection 
of  neglected  Negro  districts.  This  cooperation  developed 
until  in  1920  a  committee  of  white  citizens  met  a  similar 
committee  of  Negro  citizens,  thus  representing  the  entire 
city,  and  adopted  plans  and  undertook  activities  for  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  city  and  the  betterment  of  race  rela 
tions.  Thus,  by  gradual  steps,  led  by  philanthropic  and 
Christian-minded  men  and  women,  through  sudden  mis 
fortune  of  fire  and  the  appeal  of  its  victims  and  through 
joint  effort  to  soften  the  lot  of  the  neglected,  the  whole 
community  became  conscious  of  the  mutual  interests  of  all 
classes  and  both  races. 

Church  cooperation  leads  to  better  understanding. 
In  Atlanta,  in  1916,  a  Committee  on  Church  Coopera 
tion  was  formed  composed  of  representatives  from  the 
ministry  and  laity  of  white  evangelical  denominations. 
Among  several  "standing  committees"  was  one  on  "race 
relationship."  This  committee  occasionally  held  joint 
meetings  with  the  Negro  ministers.  In  February,  1919,  a 
regional  conference  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement 
was  held  under  the  auspices  of  this  Committee  on  Church 
Cooperation.  Among  the  "findings"  or  declarations  of 
the  conference  was  a  statement  about  the  obligation  of 
white  churchmen  to  Negroes.  It  said,  "Loyalty  to  our 
lofty  ideal  of  democracy  and  to  our  Master  .  .  .  demands 
that  we  shall  not  pause  until  the  Negro  in  America  shall 
have  justice  equal  to  that  of  the  white  man  and  an  op 
portunity  for  the  full  development  of  the  highest  possi 
bilities  of  his  personality."  The  conference  specified  the 


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A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  161 

following  obligations:  that  "full  justice  be  done  the 
Negro"  in  the  courts;  that  a  "radical  change  for  the 
better"  be  made  in  Negro  housing  and  neighborhood  con 
ditions  ;  that  safe  and  comfortable  provisions  be  made  for 
Negroes  in  public  travel ;  and  that  adequate  provision  be 
made  for  Negro  education. 

Following  this  conference  and  pronouncement,  these 
white  men  called  some  leading  Negro  ministers  of  At 
lanta  to  a  meeting  and  proposed  a  parallel  Negro  Com 
mittee  on  Church  Cooperation.  These  two  parallel  gen 
eral  committees  have  since  held  meetings, — weekly  sepa 
rate  meetings  and  monthly  joint  meetings.  Some  results 
have  flowed  from  their  joint  efforts :  rumors  of  race 
clashes  have  been  run  down  and  allayed;  a  junior  high 
school  and  better  grammar  schools  for  Negroes  have 
been  promised  by  the  city;  a  tract  of  land  for  a  Negro 
park  has  been  bought  and  given  to  the  city;  and  other 
things  have  been  done  to  improve  conditions  and  race 
relations.  The  plan  has  fostered  mutual  understanding 
and  has  offered  "the  Negro 'the  privilege  of  cooperating 
with  the  white  man  in  a  work  of  common  concern,  which 
work  hitherto  has  been  done  by  the  white  man  for  the 
Negro.1 

These  efforts  led  to  the  proposal  of  "The  Christian 
Council  of  Atlanta,"  composed  of  two  counselors  from 
the  laity  and  the  pastor  of  each  church,  white  and  Negro, 
in  the  city.  Through  proposed  conferences,  surveys,  and 
programs  which  may  be  adopted  by  the  churches  upon 
recommendation  of  their  ambassadors  in  council,  those 
who  have  led  this  movement  believe  they  will  see  a  new 
day  for  race  relations  in  Atlanta. 

1  "The  Atlanta  Plan  of  Interracial  Cooperation"  (pamphlet), 
by  James  Morton,  published  by  the  Commission  on  Interracial 
Cooperation,  Atlanta,  Ga. 


162  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

Efficient  cooperation  in  division  of  labor.  In  Cin 
cinnati,  about  four  years  ago,  a  young  Negro1  trained 
in  social  science  at  Fisk  University  and  the  Yale  Grad 
uate  School,  during  leisure  hours  from  his  teaching  in  a 
public  school,  began  a  survey  of  the  Negro  life  and  race 
relations  in  that  city  along  lines  he  had  been  taught.  With 
some  charts,  graphically  setting  forth  some  of  the  facts 
he  had  found,  and  the  cooperative  plans  he  proposed,  he 
gained  the  interest  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  the  city  and  the  Executive  Sec 
retary  of  the  Council  of  Social  Agencies.  Impressed  by 
the  plans  outlined  for  a  cooperative  welfare  association, 
through  these  two  men  arrangements  were  made  for  the 
full-time  service  of  the  young  man  to  work  out  his  pro 
gram.  After  three  years  of  constructive  work,  with  rep 
resentatives  selected  by  active  organizations  and  agencies 
including  churches  and  general  societies  and  with  informal 
attendants  from  departments  of  the  city  government,  a 
Negro  welfare  association  is  functioning  with  large  re 
sults.  More  than  a  score  of  organizations  and  agencies 
have  agreed  to  an  efficient  cooperative  division  of  activi 
ties.  The  executives  of  the  cooperating  agencies  meet  in 
a  common  conference  for  planning  their  work  together. 
All  cooperate  through  the  Council  of  Social  Agencies. 
The  Negroes  took  part  in  1921  in  raising  the  money  for 
the  "Community  Chest/'  They  astonished  everybody  by 
the  number  of  givers  among  them  and  the  amount  of 
money  they  contributed. 

Cooperative  organization  may  be  general.  One  of 
the  white  men  from  Nashville  and  one  from  Atlanta, 
who  had  been  active  in  the  cooperative  movements  de- 

1  See  descriptive  article  by  James  H.  Robinson  who  developed 
the  plan,  "Proceedings  of  the  Conference  of  Social  Work,  At 
lantic  City,"  Proceedings  of  the  46th  Annual  Conference,  1919, 
pp.  524-53L 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  163 

scribed  above,  saw  the  tense  racial  situation,  especially  in 
the  South,  following  the  Armistice  and  the  return  of 
Negro  soldiers  from  France.  They  called  a  few  "inter- 
racially-minded"  white  and  Negro  citizens  together  and 
formed  the  Commission  on  Interracial  Cooperation.  This 
Commission,  with  finances  drawn  mainly  from  the  War 
Work  Council,  Y.M.C.A.,  has  developed  interracial 
committees  in  more  than  seven  hundred  cities  and  coun 
ties  in  eleven  Southern  states.  Large  results  in  prevent 
ing  race  clashes,  educating  public  opinion  through  the 
press  and  pulpit,  conferences  and  efforts  to  improve 
Negro  education,  and  along  other  lines  have  been  ob 
tained. 

On  October  6-7,  1920,  under  the  auspices  of  this  com 
mission,  about  one  hundred  representative  white  women 
from  all  parts  of  the  South  met  in  conference  at  Mem 
phis,  Tenn.,  following  a  preliminary  conference  of  two 
white  women  with  ten  Negro  women  of  the  National 
Association  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs,  at  Tuskegee, 
Alabama.  Four  Negro  women  met  with  them  and  dis 
cussed  the  experiences,  feelings,  and  attitudes  of  Negro 
women.1  This  Women's  Interracial  Conference  called 
attention  to  possible  causes  of  friction  in  domestic  ser 
vice,  in  child  welfare,  sanitation  and  housing,  education, 
travel,  justice  in  the  courts  and  the  public  press  in  the 
desire  "that  everything  which  hinders  the  establishment 
of  confidence,  peace,  justice,  and  righteousness  in  our  land 
may  be  removed,"  and  "that  there  shall  be  better  under 
standing  and  good-will  in  our  midst."  The  white  women 
present  have  carried  the  message  to  be  endorsed  by  other 
groups  of  white  women  all  over  the  South.  A  perma- 

1  The  Negro  women  were  Mrs.  Charlotte  Hawkins  Brown, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Ross  Haynes,  Mrs.  Robert  R.  Moton,  and  Mrs. 
Booker  T.  Washington. 


164  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

nent  interracial  committee  has  been  formed,  and  the 
Southeastern  Federation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs  has 
adopted  a  corresponding  statement  of  cooperative  prin 
ciples. 

In  the  foregoing  descriptions  of  practical  experience 
we  have  clear  accounts  of  types  of  activities  through  the 
Church,  the  school,  the  home,  the  State,  and  the  spon 
taneous,  voluntary  associations,  that  illustrate  the  new 
world  into  which  the  two  races  are  emerging  and  the 
new  way  of  adjusting  their  interests  in  that  world.  With 
the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  inventions  of  genius 
during  the  past  century,  our  civilized  world  should  no 
longer  be  one  in  which  there  is  not  enough  food,  shelter, 
clothing,  and  comforts  to  go  around.  Steamships,  rail 
roads,  and  automobiles,  electric  lights,  telephones,  and 
telegraph,  and  thousands  of  other  conveniences  are  mak 
ing  all  groups,  nations,  and  races  near  neighbors.  Our 
new  world  has  made  class  and  racial  contacts  less  and 
less  physical  and  biological,  but  more  and  more  mental 
and  cultural.1  The  success  or  failure  of  the  American 
Negro  in  assimilating  and  using  the  knowledge  and  cul 
ture  of  his  day  has  been  mainly  determined  by  whether 
or  not  he  has  been  shut  out  of  the  occupations  and  ex 
periences  in  school,  Church,  and  State.  Through  these 
avenues  to  a  very  great  extent,  the  feeling,  thinking,  and 
acting  of  the  civilized  world  find  expression,  and  indi 
viduals  and  groups  appropriate  and  make  their  own  the 
"mental  property"  of  that  world. 

Mutual  economic  and  life  interests.  We  have  passed 
from  a  "deficit  economy"  of  the  past  when  no  group  had 
enough  to  go  around  to  a  "surplus  economy"  of  the  pres 
ent  when,  if  fairly  distributed,  there  may  be  enough  and 

1  Commons,  John  R.,  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,  pp. 
19-21. 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  165 

to  spare.  Furthermore,  the  good  treatment  of  one's 
neighbor  which  will  help  him  to  develop  and  prosper  is  of 
great  advantage  to  oneself.  Truly  it  blesses  him  that 
gives  and  him  that  takes. 

In  race  relations  in  America  the  old  feelings,  attitudes, 
and  habits  of  action,  developed  under  the  pioneer  days, 
and  its  "deficit  economy,"  have  left  a  system  of  thinking 
and  acting  from  the  past  as  though  we  were  still  on  a  basis 
of  classes  of  bond  and  free,  when  we  are  in  the  new  day 
of  freemen  and  plenty.  The  slave  system  was,  in  truth, 
a  "deficit  economy."  The  "Seaboard  Slave  States"  x  and 
other  books  by  Olmsted,  the  descriptions  of  earlier  trav 
elers,  as  well  as  the  statistics  given  in  DeBow's  Review 
and  Helper's  Impending  Crisis,  give  positive  evidence 
that  the  system  was  economically  unsound.  Woodrow 
.Wilson2  says,  "The  system  of  slave  labor  condemned 
the  South  to  prosecute  agriculture  at  the  cost  of  a  tre 
mendous  waste  of  resources."  Gradually  free  labor  in 
free  states  became  alarmed  for  its  own  future.  The 
slave  system  also  ran  counter  to  the  Christian  conscience 
of  many,  both  within  and  without  the  states  where  it 
prevailed.  From  the  earliest  days  the  opposition  to  Chris 
tianizing  slaves  because  Christian  baptism  carried  with 
it  the  idea  of  freedom  3  aroused  those  who  saw  the  ulti 
mate  danger  to  the  general  religious  welfare.  When 
missionaries  worked  among  the  slaves  they  found  such  a 
response  as  to  increase  the  concern  about  the  develop 
ment  of  these  persons.  In  other  fields  besides  the  eco 
nomic  and  the  religious,  men  gradually  awoke  to  the 

1  Olmsted,  Frederick  Law,  A  Journey  in  the  Seaboard  Slave 
States,  New  York,   1856;  A   Journey  in  the  Back  Country;  A 
Journey  Through  Texas;  The  Cotton  Kingdom,  New  York,  1861, 
reprinted  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

2  Division  and  Reunion,  pp.  127-128. 

3Woodson,  C.  G.,  History  of  the  Negro  Church,  pp.  4,  6. 


166  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

common  interdependence  of  all  upon  the  condition  of  a 
part  of  the  population. 

After  the  coming  of  Negro  emancipation  and  the  re 
adjustment  of  the  first  few  decades  following,  America 
became  absorbed  in  other  affairs, — the  tariff,  free  silver, 
the  Spanish-American  War,  the  Philippines,  and  the 
world  struggle  for  democratic  governments.  The  prob 
lems  of  domestic  race  relations  assumed  a  smaller  place 
in  public  thinking;  but  the  old  ways  and  attitudes  and 
frictional  contacts  continued.  There  grew  up  the  prin 
ciple  of  dealing  with  the  questions  somewhat  as  though 
the  two  races  inhabited  separate  countries  and  were  dis 
tinct  in  interests  and  ideals,  instead  of  viewing  their  rela 
tions  as  mutual  and  their  interests  and  ideals  as  inter 
dependent.  In  later  years,  as  the  inevitable  connection  of 
interests  and  obligations  and  the  effects  of  keeping  the 
Negro  down 1  have  begun  to  dawn  upon  the  mind  of 
America,  a  new  basis  of  relations  is  beginning  to  receive 
recognition  from  the  leaders  of  both  races,  and  a  new 
basis  of  friendly  contacts  is  felt  and  begins  to  operate. 

Their  joint  interest  in  labor,  trade,  government,  health, 
education,  morals,  and  religion  are  so  inextricably  inter 
woven  that  they  cannot  be  separated  so  long  as  the  two 
races  inhabit  the  same  soil.2  Their  hopes  and  fears,  their 
ambitions  and  their  ideals  rise  or  fall  together.  Their 
common  welfare  makes  action  together  in  harmony  the 
only  sure  basis  of  progress.  The  impulse  toward  such 
mutual  action  is  as  fundamental  in  nature  and  in  human 
nature  as  the  tendency  to  struggle  in  conflict  against  each 
other.  The  theory  of  the  "struggle  for  the  life  of  others" 
is  as  scientifically  sound  as  that  of  the  "struggle  for  exist- 

1  Murphy,   Edward   Gardner,    The  Basis   of  Ascendency,  pp. 

I54-I7L 

2  Compare  Jefferson,  Thomas,  work  cited,  pp.  266-268. 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  167 

ence."  The  belief  that  physical  force  is  the  guiding  prin 
ciple  for  setting  things  right  in  social  groups  grows  partly 
out  of  the  scientific  idea  that  life  is  a  struggle,  where 
nature  is  "red  in  tooth  and  claw."  That  idea  has  been 
applied  to  human  society ;  it  has  been  accepted  that  "the 
survival  of  the  fittest"  in  human  life  meant  in  the  main 
the  survival  of  the  strongest.  For  example,  Bernhardi 
and  others  in  Germany,  while  counting  the  value  of  in 
telligence  in  national  life,  ridiculed  the  idea  of  mercy  and 
kindness  and  gave  the  nation  a  popular  philosophy  of 
brutal  force.  This  idea  was  not  absent  from  other  peo 
ples.  It  ended  in  the  great  nightmare  of  the  World  War. 

During  the  past  fifty  years,  so  loud  and  dominant  has 
been  this  view  that  the  equally  sound  idea  of  the  struggle 
for  the  existence  of  others  has  received  little  attention. 
The  "mutual  aid  principle"  is  wide-spread  among  lower 
animals.  It  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in  man's 
achieving  his  position  as  "king  of  living  creatures." 
Man's  higher  social  virtues  have  their  roots  in  this  factor 
of  "otherism."  *  Group  feelings,  attitudes,  and  habits 
based  upon  mutual  aid — emotions  elaborated  out  of  "the 
struggle  for  the  life  of  others" — have  become  so  ingrained 
in  some  human  beings  as  to  dominate  brute  emotions  and 
traits.  In  others,  the  mutual  aid  habits  soon  break  down 
under  changing  conditions. 

Group  interdependence  between  mental  and  social 
factors.  The  growing  knowledge  of  group  psychology 
indicates  how  readily  one  national  or  racial  group  reacts 

1  The  biological  basis  of  mutual  aid  or  cooperation  has  been 
treated  by  several  writers  of  scientific  standing.  Henry  Drum- 
mond  in  his  Ascent  of  Man  was  one  of  the  first  Kropotkin, 
the  Russian,  has  written  extensively  on  cooperation  among  lower 
animals.  Vernon  Kellogg  has  recently  stated  this  idea  admirably 
in  an  article,  "The  Biologist  Speaks  of  Death,"  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  June,  1921.  The  writings  of  many  others  have  given 
us  ample  biological  ground  for  our  view  of  human  mutual  aid. 


168  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

to  the  feelings  and  attitudes  of  another.1  All  our  sociol 
ogy  teaches  that  races  and  classes  living  upon  the  same 
soil  are  inseparably  linked  one  with  another  in  labor, 
trade,  government  and  culture,2  to  say  nothing  of  the 
interaction  of  tribes  and  nations  in  different  lands. 

Race  prejudices,  frictions,  fears,  suspicions,  and  an 
tagonisms  cannot  be  attacked  in  the  abstract  and  in  gen 
eral.  They  die  and  decay  in  the  face  of  pleasant  experi 
ence  during  the  contacts  of  individuals  and  groups  of  the 
two  races  as  they  strive  in  "the  regular  go  of  things"  of 
daily  life.  In  factories  and  in  the  fields  where  produce 
follows  labor;  in  the  schools  and  colleges  where  children 
and  youths  are  trained;  in  the  courts  and  other  depart 
ments  of  the  commonwealth  where  citizens  adjust  their 
differences ;  in  the  home  where  parents  and  children  nur 
ture  the  common  heritage  of  personal  habits,  traditions, 
and  customs;  in  the  Church,  where  justice,  mercy,  and 
communion  with  Jehovah  are  visioned ;  in  the  contacts  and 
experiences,  pleasurable  or  painful,  in  the  routine  of  life, 
— hostile  feelings,  prejudiced  beliefs  and  attitudes,  un 
founded  fears  and  groundless  suspicions  are  aroused  and 
nourished  or  are  removed  and  replaced  by  pleasant  sen 
sations,  by  friendly  feeling,  by  mutual  understanding,  and 
by  cooperative  good-will.  The  appreciation  of  the  like 
nesses  in  each  race  on  both  sides  of  the  racial  line  and 
friendly  habits  of  action  come  in  this  way. 

Fair  play  and  friendly  action  will  follow  the  conscious 
ness  of  common  likeness  just  as  friction  and  fear  have 
been  the  results  of  emphasis  on  racial  differences.  No 
reasonable  person  will  deny  that  racial  fears,  prejudices, 

1  McDougall,  William,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology. 
Section  II,  pp.  271-358;   Pillsbury,  W.   B.,   The  Psychology  of 
Nationality  and  Internationalism,  pp.  21-62,  186-223,  278-309. 

2  Ross,   E.    A.,   Principles   of   Sociology,   pp.    96-120,    194-268; 
Maciver,  R.  M.,  The  Elements  of  Social  Science,  pp.  i-u. 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  169 

and  suspicions  are  founded  upon  either  real  differences, 
upon  misapprehension  born  of  the  imagination  or  are  pro 
duced  by  ignorance.  These  differences,  real  or  unreal, 
reside  either  in  the  conflicting  interests  of  individuals, 
races,  and  groups  or  within  the  people  themselves.  Racial 
differences  between  groups  have  so  far  been  proved  only 
in  outward  appearances,  like  the  different  national  styles 
of  dress  or  color  of  skin.  If  fundamental,  there  are  group 
differences  of  interest  like  the  competition  of  nations  for 
political  power  that  has  led  to  war  between  nations,  or 
the  conflict  of  merchants  for  trade  that  has  led  to  trade 
war.1 

Slowly  the  telephone,  the  telegraph,  the  steamship,  and 
many  other  inventions  are  bringing  people  together  in 
such  wise  that  men  and  women  are  finding  that  they  are 
fundamentally  in  themselves  very  much  alike.  They  are 
born,  they  hunger,  they  love,  they  hate,  they  cooperate; 
they  fight,  they  propagate,  they  grow  old,  and  they  die. 
As  the  means  of  communication  have  been  multiplied, 
conflicts  of  interests  also  have  been  emphasized.  So 
long  as  groups  and  races  retain  the  old  ideas,  notions,  atti 
tudes,  and  ways,  they  remain  apart.  And  just  so  long 
will  old  fears,  prejudices,  and  suspicions  keep  alive. 
Truly  the  avenues  through  which  pleasurable  contacts 
may  be  made  that  create  new  attitudes  and  ways,  give  the 
spirit  of  brotherhood  the  opportunity  to  operate.  A 
rapid  description  of  the  avenues  comprised  in  our  prin 
cipal  organizations  and  types  of  volunteer  agencies  will 
make  clear  their  utility  for  such  contacts. 

The  family  and  home  as  avenues  of  pleasurable  con 
tacts.  The  Negro  home  as  discussed  in  Chapter  II 
showed  the  long  march  to  the  present  Negro  home  life 

1  See  Appendix  for  the  question  of  mental  capacity  of  the 
Negro. 


i;o  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

from  the  slave  cabin  family,  the  members  of  which  could 
be  separated  at  any  moment  by  the  wish  or  the  death  or 
the  business  failure  of  the  owner.  It  is  viewed  in  this 
chapter  from  the  side  of  the  family  circle  as  a  source  of 
good-will  in  race  relations. 

The  home  is  the  abiding  place  of  the  family  and  the 
bulwark  of  the  highest  and  dearest  in  modern  life.  The 
family  institution  and  its  castle,  the  home,  require  that 
the  marriage  bond  of  the  two  whom  law  and  religion 
unite  as  one  for  better  or  for  worse  even  unto  death,  be 
protected  by  both  the  Church  and  the  State  in  their  most 
sacred  obligation.  The  husband  and  father  has  the  re 
sponsibility  of  providing  support  for  the  family  accord 
ing  to  a  standard  of  living  in  keeping  with  the  relation 
of  the  family  to  the  general  welfare.  The  feelings  and 
customs  of  the  community  and  the  nation  should  make 
it  possible  for  him  to  get  work,  to  hold  it,  and  to  be  ad 
vanced  in  position  and  pay  unhampered  by  creed  or  color. 
The  handicaps  of  the  Negro  family  in  this  respect  have 
been  touched  upon  in  Chapters  II  and  III.  The  wife 
and  mother  should  have  support  and  shelter,  that  she 
may  bear  and  bless  with  loving  hands  and  heart-throbs  the 
little  ones  who  pass  that  way  into  the  work-a-day  world. 
Her  time  and  mind  should  be  entirely  freed  from  bread- 
winning,  that  she  may  have  strength,  leisure,  and  re 
newal  of  spirit  for  the  nurture  of  the  young.  The  Negro 
mother  has  the  heaviest  burden  to  bear  of  any  mother  in 
America.  Three  times  as  many  Negro  married  women 
as  white  women  were  gainfully  employed  in  1910. 

The  children  need  food  and  clothing,  plenty  of  each, 
and  the  shelter  that  protects  both  health  and  morals.  They 
require  freedom  from  premature  toil,  affording  time  to 
grow,  chances  to  learn,  places  to  play,  opportunity  to  feel 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  171 

obedience  to  the  authority  of  parents,  to  sense  the  ideals 
of  clean  living,  and  to  catch  the  traditions  of  truth  and 
beauty  and  goodness  as  anchors  when  the  storms  of 
passion  rise  and  the  billows  of  selfishness  and  preju 
dice  roll. 

The  majority  of  Negro  children  in  America  to-day 
live  in  houses  either  on  plantation  or  farm,  in  town  or 
in  the  city,  that  are  grossly  deficient  in  ordinary  sanitary 
conveniences.  Many  of  these  homes  are  one  or  two- 
room  shanties  or  crowded  tenements  where  the  most  in 
timate  acts  of  life  cannot  have  the  privacy  which  mod 
esty  demands.  Before  the  tender  years  of  the  early  teens 
are  past,  more  of  these  children  than  any  others  in  coun 
try,  town,  and  city  are  loaded  with  toil.  In  cities  they 
are  largely  deprived  of  places  to  stretch  their  bodies  in 
play,  and  in  the  South  there  are  inadequate  schools  in 
which  to  develop  their  minds  and  spirits.  Mother  and 
father,  when  the  latter  has  not  been  snatched  away  by 
injustice  or  exploitation  or  has  not  decamped,  usually  go 
out  to  work  in  the  gray  hours  of  the  morning  and  return 
in  the  dim  darkness,  after  a  long,  laborious  day.  The 
little  children  are  frequently  locked  indoors  with  food  and 
water  within  reach  like  dumb  animals,  and  older  children, 
if  not  at  work,  are  free  to  roam  the  streets  or  country 
side  until  parents  come  home. 

Influence  of  race  relations  on  white  and  Negro 
homes.  The  home  is  probably  the  greatest  avenue  of 
pleasurable  daily  contacts  between  the  races.  In  thou 
sands  of  white  homes  to-day  the  touch  of  Negro  servants 
influences  feelings  and  attitudes  of  white  people  more  than 
many  realize.  After  long  experience  in  placement  of 
Negro  servants  in  thousands  of  white  homes,  and  observa 
tion  of  conditions  in  small  towns  and  cities,  Mrs.  Haynes 


172  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

says :  x  "The  white  woman  who  employs  the  Negro  woman 
in  her  home  to-day  usually  asks  how  much  work  she  can 
get  out  of  her  and  how  cheaply,  while  the  Negro  woman 
usually  figures  how  little  she  can  give  in  return.  The 
personal  interest  of  each  in  the  other  as  cooperators  in 
the  greatest  of  enterprises,  the  home,  seems  to  be  a  di 
minishing  part  of  their  bargain,  quickly  made  and  easily 
broken." 

Few  white  women  know  that  there  are  many  Negro 
residences  not  far  from  their  own,  where  women  of  edu 
cation  and  refinement  hold  sway  by  all  the  intangible 
forces  that  flow  out  from  the  hearthside  to  uphold  civi 
lization.  Whether  white  women  recognize  it  or  not,  these 
women  and  these  homes  play  an  indispensable  part  in 
making  life  livable  and  lovable  in  their  communities  and 
in  the  nation.  Furthermore,  white  people  cannot  neglect 
their  relation  to  these  homes  if  racial  peace  is  to  reign. 
More  than  seventy-five  out  of  every  one  hundred  Negro 
homes  are  supported  by  workers  practically  all  of  whom 
have  white  employers.  How  many  white  employers  con 
cern  themselves  about  the  homes  of  their  Negro  em 
ployees?  How  many  white  men  who  think  and  speak 
about  protecting,  even  with  lynch  law,  their  own  homes 
and  women  ever  give  serious  consideration  to  the  inroads 
made  by  white  men  upon  Negro  homes  and  the  pressure 
put  upon  defenseless  Negro  women  and  girls?  The 
mulatto  asks  an  answer  to  this  question.  How  many 
white  housewives  know  the  surroundings  or  see  the  in 
side  of  the  homes  of  their  faithful  servants  upon  whose 
health  and  skill  the  comfort  of  their  own  families  de 
pends  ? 

1  Unpublished  manuscript ;  see  also  Haynes,  Elizabeth  Ross, 
"Three  Million  of  Negro  Women  at  Work/'  Southern  Workman, 
February,  1921. 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  173 

The  Church  an  avenue  of  racial  cooperation.     The 

Church  doubtless  ranks  next  to  the  home  as  the  conserva 
tor  of  our  ideals  of  brotherhood  and  justice.  In  all  ages 
and  in  all  climes  men  have  looked  to  religion  for  assist 
ance  in  their  life  problems.  Out  of  their  efforts  to  find 
God  and  to  secure  His  help  have  grown  their  doctrine 
and  ritual  to  guide  religious  activities.  The  Christian 
Church  is  the  institution  that  brings  down  to  us  the  ideals 
of  her  Founder  and  the  experience  and  ritual  of  those 
who  have  followed  in  His  train.  Pagan  elements  some 
times  crept  in  and  caused  many  to  misjudge  her  work  and 
her  mission,  but  as  time  passes,  the  Church  shakes  these 
off  and  moves  on  toward  the  goal  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man. 

Churches  in  America  have  had  New  World  problems 
to  deal  with  from  the  founding  of  the  colonies.  The 
same  year  the  Pilgrims  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock  in 
New  England,  twenty  Africans  were  sold  into  slavery  in 
Virginia  under  the  shadow  of  the  English  Church,  and 
human  slavery,  the  stumbling-block  for  hundreds  of  years 
to  come,  was  placed  upon  our  shores.  In  the  years  which 
followed,  the  vested  economic  interest  in  land,  in  slaves,  in 
slave-trade  and  its  profits  so  blurred  the  vision  of  many 
churchmen  that  the  humanitarian  and  religious  recogni 
tion  of  personality  in  all  humankind  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery  was  postponed. 

When  agricultural,  industrial,  and  commercial  mo 
tives  could  no  longer  silence  conscience,  many  church  de 
nominations  split  on  the  question  of  holding  human  be 
ings  in  bondage, — and  they  are  still  struggling  to  bridge 
the  chasm  which  the  controversy  created.  To-day  a 
stumbling-block  is  the  question  of  admitting  the  dark- 
skinned  former  slave  into  the  reorganized  brotherhood. 
So  long  as  white  churchmen  regard  Negro  churchmen  as 


174  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

anything  less  than  human  beings,  full  fairness  in  thought 
about  them  and  brotherly  action  toward  them  are  improba 
ble  dreams.  To  deny  their  full  personality  and  at  the 
same  time  give  equality  in  industry,  politics,  and  educa 
tion  are  impracticable.  So  long  as  Negro  churchmen 
meet  white  churchmen  with  distrust  and  dissimulation, 
genuine  good-will  and  cooperative  action  are  remote  ex 
pectations. 

The  white  church  has  the  resources  in  men  and  money 
to  do  what  it  wills  in  America.  The  success  in  securing 
prohibition  legislation  is  only  one  illustration  of  what  it 
can  do  when  it  wills.  The  clergy  have  the  ear  of  the 
people,  and  they  can  tell  them  that  their  religious  profes 
sions  and  their  democratic  pronouncements  must  bring 
peace  and  good-will  into  the  relations  of  white  people  and 
Negro  people  in  America  in  order  to  convince  a  waiting 
world  of  American  sincerity  in  promoting  cooperation  in 
international  relations. 

The  Negro  Church  forced  through  discrimination. 
A  description  of  the  Negro  Church  and  its  progress  has 
been  sketched  in  Chapter  II.  For  our  purpose  here  it  is 
important  to  point  out  that  the  Negro  Church  arose 
mainly  out  of  the  denial  to  Negro  churchmen  of  full  fel 
lowship  in  mixed  organizations,  reenforced  by  a  very 
human  desire  on  the  part  of  Negroes  for  self-determina 
tion.1  The  Negro  Church  is  one  of  the  two  organizations 
the  race  can  call  its  own.  The  other  is  the  secret  so 
ciety.  Schools,  theaters,  and  business  enterprises  are 
partly  under  white  control  or  competition.  The  Negro 
Church,  except  for  its  property  titles  and  the  general 
laws,  needs  to  consult  no  white  people  about  its  pur 
poses,  plans,  organizations,  or  leaders.  A  white  person 
rarely  visits  a  Negro  church.  In  a  recent  survey  of 

1  Wright,  R.  R.,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  113-14;  166-67. 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  175 

Negro  churches  of  seven  rural  counties  in  three  Southern 
states,  white  persons  were  unknown  in  the  Sunday- 
schools,  and  less  than  a  score  of  churches  out  of  a  total 
of  247  reported  that  a  white  minister  ever  preached  for 
them  or  that  a  white  person  ever  paid  them  a  visit. 
Such  visits  might  remove  a  world  of  suspicion.  Only  an 
occasional  Negro  darkens  the  doors  of  a  white  congrega 
tion.  How  different  from  a  past  generation!  The  sep 
arate  Negro  organizations  have  provided  openings  for 
development  of  church  leaders,  ministers,  and  laymen, 
who  may  experiment  in  molding  their  following  along 
lines  of  their  own  feelings.  That  this  has  led  to  grave 
mistakes  at  times  is  not  to  be  denied,  but  many  excel 
lencies  have  been  achieved  that  would  not  have 
been  obtained.  These  prophesy  great  prospects  for 
real  interracial  cooperation.  Those  denominations  that 
have  both  white  and  Negro  members  can  also  contribute 
a  powerful  influence  in  that  direction  through  according 
full  standing  among  laity  and  clergy  to  their  Negro  mem 
bers  who  achieve  the  best  in  character  and  zeal. 

Satisfactory  racial  contacts  through  churches.  This 
avenue  for  satisfactory  racial  contacts  which  will  remove 
prejudices  and  suspicions  and  restore  confidence  and 
good-will  has  not  been  utilized  to  a  great  extent.  Min 
isters'  conferences,  laymen's  conferences,  and  the  ex 
change  of  speakers  would  promote  action  on  common 
interests,  involving  thousands  of  both  races,  and  inevita 
bly  would  lead  to  better  feeling  and  understanding,  to 
tolerance,  and  to  cooperative  action.  Religious  education 
in  Sunday-school,  in  Bible  schools,  in  conferences  and 
institutes  are  additional  means  for  the  exchange  of 
services.  Community  service  through  settlements,  sur 
veys,  and  through  trained  workers  carrying  out  joint  pro 
grams  of  community  betterment,  especially  for  Negro 


176  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

neighborhoods,  opens  up  a  vision  of  cooperative  service 
which  will  bless  each  race  whether  it  gives  or  receives. 
The  good  beginnings  already  made  by  several  denomina 
tions  and  individual  churches  have  spread  widening  waves 
of  good  feeling  and  new  attitudes  of  friendliness.  The 
recent  action  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America  in  creating  a  Commission  on  the 
Church  and  Race  Relations  made  up  of  churchmen  of 
both  races  opens  almost  unlimited  opportunity  for  pro 
moting  racial  cooperation.  When  thus  welcomed  in  co 
operation,  as  men  and  women  and  fellow-followers  of 
the  lowly  Nazarene,  Negro  churchmen  will  respond  in 
kind,  and  one  of  the  greatest  strokes  for  interracial  peace 
will  have  been  made. 

Educational  institutions  may  promote  cooperation. 
The  school,  meaning  the  educational  institutions  of  all 
grades,  is  the  means  of  conserving  and  passing  on  to  each 
succeeding  generation  the  intellectual  and  moral  experi 
ence  and  heritage  of  our  civilization.  Schools  for  white 
children  and  youths  are  liberally  supported  either  by 
public  funds  or  private  generosity. 

Many  public  schools  and  practically  all  the  private 
schools  for  Negroes  are  teaching  Negroes  ideals  and  hab 
its  of  sanitation,  health,  order,  law,  obedience  to  author 
ity,  home  and  family  manners,  many  things  which  schools 
generally  leave  to  parents  at  home.  The  mission  schools 
and  colleges  for  Negroes  in  the  South  for  the  past  fifty 
years  have  been  practically  training-homes  for  the  thou 
sands  who  have  lived  on  their  campuses  and  in  their 
dormitories.  In  this  connection  one  of  the  greatest 
pieces  of  interracial  cooperation  has  been  carried  out 
almost  unheralded.  The  white  teachers  who  have  lived 
among  these  Negroes  have  been  among  the  most  power 
ful  means  of  understanding  between  the  races  and  of  as- 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  177 

surance  to  Negroes.  It  is  a  striking  fact,  usually  over 
looked  by  those  who  fan  racial  fears,  that  with  the 
thousands  of  white  teachers  in  contact  with  Negroes  for 
fifty  years,  no  records  of  intermarriages  or  amalgamation 
have  found  soil  upon  which  to  grow. 

Now  that  hostile  legislation,  growing  antagonism,  and 
other  influences  are  breaking  up  these  relationships  of 
white  teachers  and  Negro  students,  thousands  of  the  best 
young  minds  of  Negroes  will  never  see  the  better  soul  of 
white  folk,  and  hundreds  of  white  persons  will  no  longer 
be  able  to  interpret  to  their  own  people  a  sympathetic 
understanding  of  the  soul  of  black  folk.  Where  sep 
arate  schools  exist,  through  school  boards,  supervising 
committees,  and  the  contact  of  white  and  Negro  teachers 
in  auxiliary  organizations  of  the  school,  through  study 
groups  and  educational  conferences,  opportunities  for 
amicable  racial  contacts  may  be  increased  in  dealing  with 
common  educational  interests  and  meeting  educational 
problems  vital  to  both  races. 

Cooperative  contacts  through  government.  Touch 
ing  our  every-day  lives  at  even  more  points  than  the 
Church  and  the  school,  and  most  profoundly  affecting  the 
home,  is  the  organized  machinery  of  the  government. 
Through  its  arms  of  city,  county,  and  local  community, 
the  national  and  state  governments  fix  the  conditions 
surrounding  all  our  activities  in  work  time  and  leisure 
time.  Public  school  support  is  determined  by  government. 
The  safeguards  of  the  family,  the  home,  and  the  Church 
are  made  by  it.  So  far  as  concerns  the  Negro,  the  of 
ficers  of  the  law — policemen,  constables,  school  boards, 
health  inspectors,  judges  of  the  courts,  and  the  like, — all 
white  men  as  a  rule, — embody  for  him  the  meaning  of 
the  State  and  the  law.  And  there  can  be  no  getting 
around  the  fact  that  this  contact  for  the  Negro  in  Amer- 


i;8  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ica  is  not,  as  a  rule,  a  pleasant  experience.  When  in 
cities  like  Atlanta,  Chicago  or  Washington,  the  nation's 
capitol,  Negroes  did  not  get  proper  protection  from  the 
police  during  the  bombing  of  their  homes  or  the  mobbing 
of  their  men  and  had  to  resort  to  arms  in  their  own  de 
fense,  when  they  did  not  get  reparation  in  the  courts  after 
the  trouble,  one  sees  not  isolated  atrocities  that  just  "hap 
pened,"  but  extreme  examples  of  a  tacit  procedure  which 
has  failed  to  place  Negro  Americans  fully  within  the 
law. 

This  cannot  continue  with  safety  to  white  men  and 
women.  If  Negroes  are  not  eligible  to  police  forces  and 
are  not  given  equal  standing  in  the  courts,  the  white 
community  pays  the  penalty  from  the  inability  of  white 
officers  to  prevent  crime  and  apprehend  criminals.-  So 
long  as  the  state  and  Federal  governments  regard  Ne 
groes  as  persons  to  be  taxed  but  not  to  be  represented 
by  those  of  their  own  free  choice,  racial  cooperation  will 
be  hobbled,  and  democracy  cannot  function.  The  Negro 
people  comprise  about  one-tenth  of  the  nation.  In  dif 
ferent  localities  they  range  from  one  to  fifty  per  cent  of 
the  population.  May  any  community  or  its  leaders  ex 
pect  general  and  permanent  progress  in  health  and  morals, 
in  law  and  order,  or  in  other  public  matters  until  the 
Negro  neighborhood  is  recognized  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  community,  and  its  citizens  are  given  an  opportunity 
freely  to  participate? 

Voluntary  organizations  may  coordinate  interracial 
activities.  Let  us  look  now  at  the  voluntary  agencies 
that  have  grown  up  more  or  less  spontaneously  to  sup 
plement  the  work  of  the  home,  the  school,  the  Church, 
and  the  State.  The  examples  described  earlier  in  the 
chapter  illustrate  what  an  effective  coordinating  force 
such  organizations  may  be.  In  almost  every  Negro  lo- 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  179 

cality  there  are  one  or  more  secret  societies  that  wield  a 
wide  influence.  Almost  every  community,  white  and  Ne 
gro,  has  its  women's  club,  men's  club,  commercial  or 
ganizations,  labor  organizations,  farmers'  organizations, 
Christian  Associations,  and  welfare  or  social  service  so 
cieties.  These  are  most  valuable  avenues  for  amicable 
relations  by  means  of  joint  committees  of  the  two  races, 
exchange  of  speakers,  and  councils  and  conferences  to 
plan  and  to  work  for  mutual  ends.  The  interracial  or 
ganizations  that  may  be  built  up  from  these  separate 
group  agencies  are  most  effective  when  made  up  of  re 
sponsible  representatives  of  agencies  as  are  described  in 
this  chapter.  The  exact  form  of  such  interracial  organ 
izations  or  committees  may  vary  to  meet  local  conditions. 
There  is  now  enough  information  from  experiments  of 
the  past  years  in  such  cities  as  Nashville,  Atlanta,  Balti 
more,  Cincinnati,  Pittsburgh,  and  other  cities,  and  such 
rural  localities  as  Calhoun,  Ala.,  Adams  County,  Miss., 
and  Nottaway  County,  Va.,  to  serve  as  suggestions  for 
almost  any  community. 

Some  cardinal  principles  have  already  come  to  the 
surface  out  of  past  experience.  First,  constructive  plans 
and  work  to  meet  some  definite  needs  of  a  part  or  all  the 
community,  rather  than  lengthy  discussions  of  "the  race 
problem,"  are  the  surest  way  to  develop  interest  and  to 
hold  it.  The  American  impulse  is  to  act.  Discussion  that 
aims  toward  action  is  the  only  kind  which  does  not  soon 
kill  interest  and  enthusiasm. 

Second,  it  is  not  sufficient  merely  to  fight  evils  and  to 
cure  community  sores.  Treatment  for  typhoid  and 
tuberculosis  are  certainly  needed  when  those  ills  appear. 
Opposition  to  mobs  and  lynchers  are  needed,  God  knows. 
An  ounce  of  prevention,  however,  is  worth  ten  pounds  of 
cure.  Constructive  social  betterment  to  improve  condi- 


i8o  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

tions  of  Negroes  and  promote  friendly  race  relations  on 
the  farms,  in  the  factories,  schools,  trains,  streets,  mar 
ket-places,  and  elsewhere  and  thus  prevent  racial  clashes, 
is  far  more  important  and  effective  than  social  medicine 
to  palliate  the  eruptions  that  break  out  from  chronic  com 
munity  evils. 

Third,  any  community  that  attempts  such  preventive 
efforts  may  well  map  out  a  definite  program  of  work.  It 
may  not  be  exhaustive  or  wide  in  scope,  but  it  should 
be  definite,  be  aimed  at  specific  needs,  and  calculated  to 
bring  results  which  all  the  people  may  see.  Where 
vision,  patience,  and  financial  support  are  available,  a 
careful  survey  of  the  field  may  well  be  made,  and  a  pro 
gram  of  work  be  prepared  from  the  facts  obtained,  before 
other  activities  are  undertaken.  The  time  is  not  far 
away,  let  us  hope,  when  those  with  money  will  see  the 
need  of  some  national  interracial  effort  for  a  cooperative 
clearing  house  to  promote  such  local  cooperation.  The 
churches  have  here  the  opportunity  to  serve  America 
and  the  world. 

Fourth,  the  personnel  of  such  community  organization 
is  of  two  types :  the  community-minded  citizens,  white 
and  Negro,  with  interracial  tolerance,  and  the  executive, 
specially  trained  in  social  work.  The  first  type  of  per 
sons  should  come  into  mutual  council  or  organizations 
as  representatives  of  agencies  or  organized  group  and 
racial  interests.  They  are  the  ones,  and  the  only  ones, 
competent  to  adopt  plans  and  settle  policies  which  will 
affect  the  daily  lives  of  all.  Professional  social  service 
agents  or  experts  can  do  no  more  than  get  these  groups 
together  and  lay  facts  and  ideas  before  them.  The  peo 
ple  of  both  races  can  be  led  to  the  waters  of  wisdom, 
but  they  themselves  must  decide  to  drink. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  the  representa- 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  181 

tives  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  chosen  by  their  own 
group  or  agency  and  that  there  should  be  a  Negro  ex 
ecutive  on  the  Negro  side  of  the  equation.  There  are  so 
many  details  requiring  constant  attention  if  success  is  to 
be  assured,  that,  in  all  but  the  least  populous  communi 
ties,  executives  should  be  paid,  and  service  consequently 
required.  Executives  on  both  sides  of  the  racial  divide 
in  such  delicate  and  difficult  relations  should  be  persons 
who  can  act  promptly  when  action  is  necessary  and  who 
can  wait  patiently  when  action  may  best  be  deferred. 

Fifth,  to  insure  satisfactory  contacts  as  members  of  the 
two  races  strive  together  toward  mutual  ends,  there  is 
need  of  some  appreciation  of  distinctive  racial  attitudes, 
impulses,  and  habits  of  thought  and  action  as  indicated  in 
Chapters  III  and  V.  The  Negro  representatives  come 
into  such  councils  possessing,  among  other  things,  a  keen 
response  to  personalities,  with  pleasure  in  friendly  con 
versation,  with  a  warmth  of  cheerfulness,  and  a  play  of 
wit.  The  white  representatives  have  a  sharp  perception 
of  the  economic  values  and  relations  and  less  of  the 
humorous  and  more  of  the  aggressive,  executive  cast  of 
mind.  On  the  Negro  side,  indirect  approach  or  patient 
waiting  is  the  method  of  action  with  difficult  problems, 
while  on  the  white  side  there  is  strenuous  pursuit  that 
overrides  the  difficulty  or  smashes  it. 

It  frequently  happens,  therefore,  that  the  white  mem 
bers  of  such  organizations  become  impatient  at  the  slower 
moving  methods  of  Negroes.  Negroes,  on  the  other 
hand,  often  chafe  because  of  the  pushing,  executive 
methods  of  white  members.  Understanding  and  insight 
into  such  variations  in  reactions  may  forestall  much 
friction  and  smooth  the  path  for  many  negotiations.  Of 
course,  there  are  Negroes  who  have  so  far  absorbed  the 
American  idea  of  haste  and  efficiency  that  many  of  the 


182  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

human  equations  on  the  Negro  side  are  overlooked. 
These  persons,  however,  are  often  not  as  successful  in 
dealing  with  their  own  as  they  would  have  others  be 
lieve.  Many  more  cooperative  efforts  of  the  two  races 
would  succeed  in  their  purpose  if  those  promoting  them 
would  take  more  care  that  their  minds  meet. 

Finally,  real  cooperation  means  operating  together, 
each  mindful  of  the  full  interest  of  the  other  or  ready  to 
give  and  take  for  the  sake  of  reaching  a  common  goal. 
Where  one  race  or  the  other  thinks  more  highly  of  itself 
or  of  its  interests  than  it  ought  to  think,  such  joint  opera 
tion  is  practically  unworkable.  As  the  American  ideals 
propagated  in  our  homes,  our  schools,  churches,  govern 
ment,  and  voluntary  agencies  impress  themselves  upon 
Negroes,  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  treat  them  as  less  than 
freemen  or  as  children.  They  may  not  know  all  the 
American  ways  of  doing  things,  but  they  are  now  awake 
to  what  it  means  to  be  free.  Negro  progress  in  agri 
culture,  industry,  art,  literature,  science,  and  religion  is 
now  a  fact  recognized  by  all  fair-minded  observers. 
White  Americans  are  gradually  coming  to  see  that  race 
relations  in  the  future  require  that  they  work  not  simply 
for,  but  with  Negroes. 

The  ideas  that  the  welfare  of  one  race  is  bound  up  with 
the  welfare  of  the  other,  that  what  helps  one  helps  the 
other  and  what  injures  one  cannot  help  the  other,  and 
that  cooperative  action  and  friendly  contact  are  the  way 
of  progress  for  both  races  is  slowly  but  surely  being 
carried  over  to  the  people. 

Popular  education  needed.  Popular  educational  ac 
tivity  among  Negroes  and  white  people  to  inform  each 
race  about  the  other  and  about  race  relations  is  impera 
tive  for  such  purposes.  This  might  be  called  propaganda. 
If  so,  it  is  the  kind  of  propaganda  that,  instead  of  ad- 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  183 

vertising  differences,  fears,  suspicions,  and  frictions,  lays 
stress  upon  racial  likenesses,  points  out  instances  of 
good- will  in  deeds,  stimulates  justice  by  publicity  of  ex 
amples  of  it  more  than  the  accounts  of  injustice,  and 
informs  each  race  of  the  better  sides  of  the  other  race. 
The  value  of  such  efforts  has  been  illustrated  by  the  work 
of  such  newspapers  as  the  Columbia  State,  the  Nash 
ville  American,  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  the  New 
York  World,  by  the  Southern  University  Commission  on 
the  Race  Question,  by  the  Southern  Publicity  Committee, 
and  by  propaganda  activity  of  the  Commission  on  Inter 
racial  Cooperation,  the  War  Work  Councils  of  the 
Y.M.CA.  and  of  the  Y.W.C.A.,  the  Home  Missions 
Council,  the  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions,  and 
the  Commission  on  the  Church  and  Race  Relations  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America, 
and  other  organizations  the  past  few  years. 

On  the  whole,  Negroes  know  the  life  among  white 
people  better  than  the  latter  know  the  inner  side  of  life 
among  Negro  people.  Negroes,  especially  in  the  South, 
prepare  the  food  for  most  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes 
of  white  people;  they  clean  their  homes,  wash  their 
clothing,  care  for  their  children,  nurse  their  sick,  assist 
at  their  marriages  and  in  the  last  sad  rites  of  their  dead. 
Night  and  day,  from  season  to  season,  they  are  closely 
associated  with  white  people  in  their  homes,  in  their  of 
fices,  and  on  their  pleasure  trips.  White  people  are  so 
absorbed  in  their  own  affairs  and  so  readily  assume  that 
they  have  understood  the  simple  folk  who  serve  them, 
that  much  that  goes  on  among  the  Negro  people  is  un 
known  to  them. 

These  contacts  of  domestic  servants  with  white  em 
ployers  have  been  the  means  of  the  Negro's  learning  and 
gaining  much  from  white  people,  who,  in  turn,  have 


i84  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

gathered  considerable  from  the  Negro.  Times  have 
changed.  Domestic  and  personal  servants  no  longer  form 
Negro  opinion  to  the  extent  they  did  formerly.  Much 
of  the  feeling  and  thinking  of  Negroes  are  stimulated  by 
the  Negro  platform,  pulpit,  and  press.  The  personnel 
of  these  agencies  knows  little  of  and  sees  nothing  now  of 
the  inner  life  of  white  people  in  home  and  office.  The 
men  and  women  of  color,  on  the  one  hand,  who  largely 
influence  Negro  life  to-day  get  their  impressions  and 
knowledge  of  the  white  world  from  casual  contacts  on 
the  streets,  from  the  people  they  meet  in  the  courts  or  in 
the  stores,  from  the  white  policeman  on  the  beat,  and 
fromjthe  white  newspaper,  ;wr^chjusually  "plays  up"  con 
ventional  ideas  about  Negroes  and  speaks  editorially 
about  them  without  knowing  much  of  the  best  among 
them. 

On  the  other  hand,  white  men  and  women,  except  an 
occasional  workman  or  salesman,  rarely  enter  the  better 
types  of  Negro  homes,  as  mentioned  above.  White  peo 
ple  are  accustomed  to  draw  their  impressions  about  Ne 
groes  from  the  crime  accounts  of  white  newspapers, 
from  conversations,  from  observations  of  and  reports 
from  their  Negro  servants,  and  from  what  they  see  of 
the  idle  loafers  about  the  streets.  In  many  cases,  these 
apparent  idlers  on  the  streets  are  waiters,  porters,  and 
other  domestic  and  personal  service  employees  who  have 
"time  off." 

The  first  and  most  influential  avenue  of  popular  edu 
cational  propaganda  is  the  press,  white  and  Negro.  The 
newspapers  of  our  land  hold  the  feelings  and  attitudes 
of  the  people  in  the  hollow  of  their  hands.  In  the  past 
this  has  not  been  as  true  of  the  Negro  press  as  the 
white,  but  the  Negro's  "fourth  estate"  is  gradually  com 
ing  into  a  place  of  power  and  responsibility,  as  Professor 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  183 

Kerlin's  compilation  of  Negro  editorial  opinion  very  well 
shows.1  Lynchings  have  been  fostered,  mobs  and  riots 
have  been  precipitated  largely  through  the  sinister  pro 
paganda  of  certain  white  newspapers.  The  Grand  Jury 
fixed  a  part  of  the  blame  for  the  Atlanta  riots  of  1906 
upon  a  local  newspaper.  The  Washington  riot  of  1919 
was  partly  due  to  the  false  reports  published  by  a  lead 
ing  newspaper.  On  the  other  hand,  many  cities  have  been 
saved  from  racial  clashes  by  timely  news  and  editorials 
of  their  high-class  dailies. 

The  next  agency  of  popular  education  for  spreading 
the  truths  of  mutual  interests  of  the  two  races  is  the 
American  pulpit.  Several  of  the  larger  white  denomina 
tions  divided  on  Negro  slavery.  Large  sections  of  the 
white  pulpit  have  been  silent  in  later  years  when  inter 
racial  problems  have  assumed  serious  aspects.  Large 
sections  of  the  Negro  pulpit  often  have  been  ignorant, 
although  friendly,  and  thus  limited  in  power  for  a  better 
interracial  program.  They  have,  nevertheless,  always  ex 
tended  a  welcome  to  the  white  minister  when  infrequently 
he  chose  to  come  and  break  the  bread  of  life  to  his  black 
brethren.  When  the  very  homes,  government,  and  com 
munities  of  all  are  at  stake  in  the  opportunity  or  lack  of 
it  for  even  the  weakest,  can  the  apostles  of  Him  who 
came  to  seek  the  least  of  these  be  silent? 

A  third  means  of  popular  education  is  the  lecture 
platform.  In  the  past,  white  men  and  women  have  been 
occasional  speakers  in  Negro  schools  and  colleges.  There 
is  a  larger  Negro  world  that  looks  for  enlightenment 
Its  churches  are  the  main  channels  for  such  activity. 
The  avenue  here  opened  to  white  speakers  is  endless. 
The  by-product  will  be  better  feeling  and  understanding 
between  the  races.  The  white  world  has  its  church  lec- 

1  See  Kerlin,  R.  T.,  The  Voice  of  the  Negro. 


186  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

ture  platform,  its  open  forums,  its  Chautauquas,  and 
similar  places  of  popular  education.  Rarely  is  a  Negro 
lecturer,  musician,  or  singer  thought  of  for  these  places. 
Many  of  them  would  be  highly  acceptable  to  white  audi 
ences.  In  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  in  1920-21, 
Negroes  spoke  to  white  students  in  a  number  of  colleges. 
These  experiments  proved  popular.  They  can  be  multi 
plied  with  profit. 

The  moving  picture  has  come  as  the  greatest  instru 
ment  for  stimulating  intelligence  since  the  invention  of 
the  printed  page.  In  most  instances  where  it  has  touched 
the  matter  of  race  relations,  it  has  been  used  to  arouse 
and  inflame  prejudice  instead  of  allaying  and  removing  it. 
Moving  pictures  can  be  used  to  bring  to  each  race  views 
of  the  better  side  of  the  life  of  the  other  race. 

Another  type  of  agency  for  popular  education  in  mu 
tuality  of  race  relations  is  such  gatherings  as  conferences, 
Sunday-school  conventions,  Christian  Endeavor  conven 
tions,  Y.M.C.A.  and  Y.W.C.A.  meetings,  educational  and 
community  conferences  and  associations,  business  and 
fraternal  organizations.  Negroes  have  not  usually  felt 
a  full  welcome  to  such  gatherings  organized  and  di 
rected  by  white  people.  One  Negro  who  has  had  much 
experience  in  such  work  expressed  it  thus:  "A  welcome 
is  extended  to  everybody  to  come ;  but  of  course,  'every 
body'  does  not  include  us  Negroes." 

Newspapers,  the  pulpit,  the  organizations  and  agencies 
that  hold  conferences  and  conventions,  cannot  ignore 
matters  so  vital  to  the  future  of  democracy  in  America. 
The  ignorance  of  the  two  races  in  regard  to  each  other 
and  to  the  oneness  of  their  interests  is  oftentimes  aston 
ishing  and  is  of  most  serious  moment  to  a  nation  which 
calls  itself  intelligent  and  Christian.  Race  hatred,  lawless 
ness,  and  disorder  are  usually  caused  by  the  self-willed, 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  187 

ignorant  Many  led  by  the  selfish  Few.  When  we  gaze 
upon  the  results  of  their  follies  and  their  crimes  in  dis 
rupted  communities,  destroyed  homes,  and  murdered  citi 
zens,  America  should  no  longer  tolerate  the  lethargy  of 
some  of  her  leaders  and  the  weakness  of  her  means  of 
popular  education.  The  forces  of  greed,  of  war,  and  mis 
taken  self-interest  have  held  the  front  of  the  stage  too 
long.  The  press,  the  pulpit,  the  platform,  and  confer 
ences  need  to  teach  people  that  their  greatest  advance 
ment  will  come  through  treating  their  neighbors  as  they 
would  wish  their  neighbors  to  treat  them. 

Mutual  inheritance  of  ideals.  As  America  looks  out 
upon  a  war-torn  world,  she  hears  the  Macedonian  cry  of 
the  nations.  Peace  conferences  and  disarmament  con 
ferences  may  set  up  the  framework;  only  the  good-will 
of  the  Master  can  create  the  spirit  of  neighborliness  and 
regard  for  common  rights.  If  America  is  to  contribute 
a  large  part  to  the  new  spirit  of  the  times,  she  must  come 
into  the  concert  of  nations  with  a  basic  harmony  among 
her  own  racial  and  national  groups  and  classes.  Her 
physical,  economic,  political,  social,  and  spiritual  health 
is  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  welfare  of  all  her  citi 
zens,  especially  her  Negro  citizens,  who  constitute  one 
out  of  every  ten  of  her  people  and  who  have  shared  in 
all  the  toil  and  sacrifice  of  her  past  progress. 

The  present  problems  and  future  prospects  make  it 
imperative  that  all  work  together  for  mutual  ends.  We 
need,  as  never  before  in  our  national  history,  to  cherish 
our  mutual  inheritance  of  common  ideals.  The  first  of 
these  is  justice  in  law  and  in  everyday  dealing  among 
all,  especially  between  white  and  Negro  peoples.  This  is 
the  special  responsibility  of  the  white  people,  as  the  mak 
ing  of  the  law,  and  custom,  as  well  as  the  control  of 
community  life,  are  more  largely  in  their  hands.  In  the 


188  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

many  daily  dealings  between  tenant  farmer,  farm  hand 
and  planter;  between  landlord  and  tenant;  between  em 
ployer  and  employee;  and  between  man  and  man,  there 
are  many  painful  experiences  for  the  ignorant  and  the 
defenseless  of  all  classes  and  races.  They  fall  most 
painfully  upon  the  Negro,  who  stands  at  the  margin  of 
our  democracy.  A  higher  ideal  of  practical  justice  is 
one  of  the  greatest  needs  of  the  whole  situation. 

In  the  assurance  of  justice  to  Negroes  is  involved  the 
whole  question  of  respect  for  law  and  order.  All  Ameri 
cans  need  more  and  more  to  learn  that  their  only  safe 
guard  for  democracy  is  profound  respect  for  and  obedi 
ence  to  the  organized  methods  of  government  which  they 
and  their  ancestors  have  established.  He  who  takes  the 
law  into  his  own  hands  to  avenge  what  he  considers  a 
violation  of  law  is  himself  the  greater  law-breaker. 
Those  who  because  of  race  or  wealth  or  "pull"  think 
they  can  violate  the  law  with  impunity  and  who  under 
take  to  do  so  are  undermining  the  very  structure  that 
assures  them  protection  and  liberty.  For,  underlying  the 
ideal  of  justice  is  the  ideal  of  American  democracy. 
Taxation  without  representation  applied  to  black  men  in 
1921  is  dangerous  to  democracy  and  as  unjust  as  when 
applied  to  white  men  in  1775.  Government  by  consent  of 
the  governed  as  a  just  principle  includes  Negro  Ameri 
cans,  or  it  is  not  just.  Freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press, 
and  of  assembly  must  apply  to  all,  or  they  are  secure  for 
none.  The  full  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  has  to  be  assured  for  all,  even  the  humblest 
and  blackest,  or  none  are  safe. 

Closely  related  to  the  ideals  of  justice  and  of  law 
and  order  is  that  of  courtesy.  Until  white  newspapers 
and  persons  learn  to  place  the  ordinary  appellations  be 
fore  the  names  of  Negro  men  and  women,  one  of  the 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  189 

first  steps  in  practical  ideals  of  courtesy  between  the 
races  will  not  have  been  made.  Furthermore,  the  use 
of  disparaging  names  such  as  "little  Africa,"  "dark- 
town,"  and  "black  bottom,"  to  describe  neighborhoods 
where  Negroes  live  and  the  common  habit  of  applying 
the  name  "darkey,"  "nigger,"  "boy,"  and  "auntie"  to 
Negro  men  and  women  belong  to  a  past  generation  and 
have  no  place  in  courteous  intercourse  to-day.  "What's 
in  a  name?"  some  one  asks.  All  the  feelings  and  atti 
tudes  associated  with  past  ways  of  acting. 

Courtesy  requires  that  Negro  girls  and  women,  as  well 
as  other  women,  be  given  due  consideration  from  all  gen 
tlemen.  The  blight  of  race  prejudice  presses  upon  them 
as  upon  no  others.  Their  own  men  are  often  powerless  to 
protect  them,  and  white  men  seem  often  to  act  upon  the 
assumption  that  Negro  women  have  no  bars  which  a 
white  man  is  bound  to  regard.  Negro  women  and  girls 
go  out  to  work,  largely  in  domestic  and  personal  service. 
Both  the  homes  from  which  they  come  and  the  homes  into 
which  they  go  demand  that  they  shall  not  be  overborne 
by  designing  men.  The  modern  community  which  allows 
the  youth,  the  beauty,  and  the  honor  of  these  sable  women 
to  be  blasted  with  impunity  can  no  longer  find  excuse 
in  their  susceptibility,  when  neither  law  nor  custom  of 
fers  them  protection  or  redress.  And  other  women  reap 
the  whirlwind  of  what  is  sown  among  them.  In  the  Day 
when  the  Searcher  of  Hearts  shall  ask  an  accounting, 
He  will  regard  as  His  own  the  treatment  which  white 
men  and  women  have  given  to  the  least  of  these. 

A  word  needs  to  be  said  also  for  the  Negro  man  of 
refined  sensibilities  who  spontaneously  shows  deference  to 
white  women  in  street  cars  and  other  places  with  no 
thought  other  than  the  gentlemanly  consideration  which 
all  men  should  show  to  womankind.  On  the  other  hand, 


igo  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

white  men  and  women  who  show  courtesy  and  respect 
for  character  and  culture  in  color  should  be  able  to  do 
so  without  the  condemnation  from  their  own  group  that 
they  are  Negrophiles. 

Another  ideal  that  needs  mutual  inculcation  is  the  obli 
gation  of  the  strong  to  the  weak.  If  Christian  principles 
are  to  have  practical  application  in  American  life,  this 
ideal  so  strongly  set  forth  by  Paul  is  a  corner-stone.  The 
world  is  just  awaking  from  the  horror  of  a  war  brought 
on  by  a  repudiation  of  this  ideal.  In  the  long  turn  of 
the  years,  America  may  find  her  salvation  in  the  strength 
of  the  strong  ministering  to  the  weakness  of  the  weak. 

Finally,  probably  as  big  a  problem  as  any  other  is  to 
cultivate  the  ideal  of  respect  of  each  race  for  human 
personality  no  matter  what  happens  to  be  the  color  of 
the  covering.  Most  social  and  racial  friction  the  world 
over  grows  out  of  the  disregard  of  persons  based  upon 
superficial  sight  of  the  complexion.  Negroes,  even  the 
humblest  of  them,  do  not  want  to  be  treated  as  nobodies. 
They  never  did.  Many  of  them  unconsciously  cry  out 
for  their  outraged  personalities  because  of  the  limitations 
placed  upon  them  more  than  because  of  the  discomforts 
they  undergo.  Men  undergo  untold  discomforts  and 
difficulties  with  fortitude  when  their  morale  is  unaffected. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  effect  of  present  restrictions  often 
leads  Negroes  to  disregard  the  depths  of  human  sym 
pathy  in  the  bosoms  of  white  people. 

In  the  conclusion  of  the  matter,  whether  we  ac 
knowledge  it  or  not,  the  inseparable  inheritance  of  the 
two  races  binds  their  welfare  to-day  and  determines  their 
progress  to-morrow.  We  have  tried  the  ways  of  war,  of 
repression  by  force  at  great  cost  and  increasing  turmoil. 
.Where  progress  and  development  of  the  two  races  is 


A  WAY  TO  INTERRACIAL  PEACE  191 

impartially  studied,  it  becomes  very  clear  that  improve 
ment  in  the  intelligence  and  wealth  of  the  one  race  has 
been  bound  up  with  the  advancement  of  the  other.  Is 
it  not  time  to  capitalize  this  constructive,  cooperative  ex 
perience  in  the  way  of  good-will?  The  task  of  amicable 
race  relations  at  home  and  abroad  involves  the  finding  of 
ways  of  discovery  and  expression  in  action  of  this  good 
will.  White  and  Negro  Americans  work  together  as 
men  and  women  facing  common  problems  in  the  same 
land — problems  of  economic  adjustment,  problems  of 
education,  problems  of  civic  and  political  justice,  prob 
lems  of  public  opinion  as  they  strive  toward  national 
ideals.  There  have  been  and  doubtless  will  continue  to 
be  conflicting  interests.  Deeper  than  these  surface  waves, 
however,  there  are  doubtless  greater  cooperative  impulses 
and  interests  for  those  who  are  settled  upon  the  same 
soil.  Experience  has  shown  that  brutal  force  only  in 
creases  the  evils  and  postpones  just  settlement. 

Patiently,  persistently,  with  a  smile  on  his  face,  the 
Negro  has  borne  a  large  part  of  the  heat  of  the  furnace 
fires  of  friction.  Here  and  there  through  the  centuries 
of  his  trials  he  has  touched  the  friendly  hand  of  the 
Caucasian  who  has  loved  truth  and  goodness  better  than 
wealth  or  power.  As  the  world  struggles  forward  toward 
peace,  it  is  not  simply  to  get  back  to  where  we  were 
before  the  World  War,  but  far  beyond — to  where  we  may 
control  our  wealth  and  our  intelligence  to  develop  the 
beauty,  usefulness,  goodness,  and  truth  in  all  people. 
The  development  of  the  Negro  and  the  experiment  of 
wholesome  race  relations  in  America  have  a  potential  con 
tribution  of  experience  to  make,  setting  examples  and 
illustrating  principles  that  will  affect  race  relations  in 
[Africa,  South  America,  and  Asia.  The  sincerity  and  the 


192  THE  TREND  OF  THE  RACES 

resultant  power  of  our  religious  profession  of  brother 
hood  are  being  tested  as  by  fire  ere  America  goes  forth 
to  carry  the  message  to  other  lands. 

As  history  and  science  open  the  scroll  of  the  centuries, 
we  see  that  the  course  of  human  progress  has  time  after 
time  been  modified  by  religious  impulses  and  ideals  that 
have  changed  the  feelings,  the  attitudes,  and  the  actions 
of  tribes  and  nations  and  races.  Among  the  peasants 
of  Palestine,  came  in  the  course  of  time,  the  Man  of 
Galilee  preaching  that  in  their  relations  peoples  and  races 
should  understand  that  they  were  children  of  a  common 
Father.  His  life  and  work  have  changed  the  trend  of 
the  races  by  continuously  moving  the  world  toward  an 
application  of  the  principles  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

Supplementary  to  Chapters  HI  and  V 

On  the  Question  of  Mental  Capacity  of  the  Negro 

It  is  well  to  have  at  hand  a  brief  summary  of  the  principal 
scientific  opinions  on  the  question  of  mental  capacity  of  the 
Negro.  Scientific  data  to-day  which  would  be  a  basis  for 
drawing  conclusions  about  the  mind  capacity  and  power  or  for 
attributing  inherent  inferiority  to  this  or  that  branch  of  the 
human  race  are  not  available.  As  Retzel  says,1  "At  present  the 
Negro  in  Africa  no  doubt  appears  to  us  uncivilized,  but  that 
means  undeveloped,  not  incapable  of  development.  .  .  .  The  dif 
ficulty  of  forming  a  judgment  about  races  increases  where  it 
has  only  been  possible  to  observe  them  closely  either  in  the 
abnormal  state  of  slavery  or  under  conditions  which  cannot 
be  compared  with  ours.  .  .  .  He  who  would  judge  of  them 
(Africans)  should  avoid  adding  to  their  unfavorable  circum 
stances  his  own  unfavorable  prejudices." 

Woodworth,  the  well-known  psychologist,  has  the  same  view. 
He  says : 2  "One  thing  the  psychologist  can  assert  with  no  fear 
of  error  .  .  .  starting  from  the  various  mental  processes,  which 
are  recognized  in  the  text-books,  he  can  assert  that  each  of 
these  processes  is  within  the  capabilities  of  each  group  of  man 
kind.  All  have  the  same  senses,  the  same  instincts  and  emo 
tions.  All  can  remember  the  past  and  imagine  objects  not 
present  to  sense.  All  discriminate,  compare,  reason,  and  invent. 
.  .  .  Statements  to  the  contrary,  denying  to  the  savage  powers 
of  reasoning  or  abstraction  or  inhibition  or  foresight,  can  be 
dismissed  at  once." 

At  different  times  there  have  been  popular  types  of  opinion 
about  the  capacity  of  the  Negro  which  attempted  to  prove  his 
inferiority  first  through  signs  of  subnormal  physical  character 
istics  such  as  length  of  arms  and  body  and  shape  of  head. 
Then  came  efforts  at  scientific  tests  of  brain  weights  and  struc 
ture  and  skull  capacity  to  prove  inferiority.  For  full  discussion 
of  such  questions  of  ethnology,  the  reader  may  consult  such 
books  as  Deniker's  Races  of  Man.  The  best  authorities  conclude 
that  there  is  too  slender  a  body  of  scientific  fact  to  serve  as 
a  basis  of  determining  the  mental  rank  of  races.3  As  Wood- 

1  Retzel,  Friedrich,  History  of  Mankind,  Vol.  II,  pp.  319-329. 

2  Woodworth,  R.   S.,  "Racial  Differences  in  Mental  Traits," 
Science,  New  Series,  Vol.  31,  p.  174, 

3  Woodworth,  R.  S.,  work  cited,  pp.  172-173. 


196  APPENDIX 

worth  says :  "Whites  and  Negroes,  though  differing  markedly 
in  complexion  and  hair,  overlap  very  extensively  in  almost  every 
other  trait;  as,  for  example,  stature.  Even  in  brain  weight, 
which  would  seem  a  trait  of  great  importance  in  relation  to 
intelligence  and  civilization,  the  overlapping  is  much  more  im 
pressive  than  the  difference.  ...  If  they  should  be  jumbled 
together,  we  should  never  be  able  to  separate  the  Negroes  from 
the  whites  by  aid  of  brain  weights." 

In  later  discussion,  mental  tests  and  observations  have  gained 
considerable  attention.  On  this  point  Ferguson  remarks : 1 
"There  has  been  no  settled  body  of  doctrine  concerning  the 
vastly  important  matter  of  the  mental  capacity  of  the  Negro. 
One  man  has  held  that  the  Negro  is  equal  to  the  white  in  intel 
lect.  Another  has  held  that  a  great  intellectual  gulf  separates 
the  two  races.  And  there  have  been  many  varieties  of  views 
between  these  two  extremes."  Professor  Miller  says,  "In 
stead  of  drawing  a  line  between  races,  psychological  comparison 
demonstrates  by  the  overlapping  (of  individual  cases)  simi 
larity  instead  of  difference."  2 

To-day,  the  scientific  material  is  taking  the  form  of  psycho 
logical  analyses  through  methods  of  objective  tests.  These 
comparative  tests  will  eventually  bring  us  very  valuable  results, 
but  present  data  are  far  too  meager  for  conclusions.  These 
tests  are  usually  in  the  form  of  exercises  to  try  the  powers  of 
perception,  memory,  color  discrimination,  etc.  Dr.  Mayo3  at 
tempted  to  determine  the  comparative  intellectual  capacity  of 
the  white  and  Negro  pupils  of  the  high  schools  of  New  York 
City  by  the  scholastic  marks  given  them  by  teachers.  Aside 
from  the  small  number  of  cases  he  used,  about  150  of  each 
race,  he  assumed  that  (i)  they  worked  under  nearly  identical 
conditions;  (2}  they  pursued  the  same  studies;  (3)  they  were 
measured  by  the  same  standards ;  (4)  they  had  received  like 
elementary  and  grammar  school  training;  and  (5)  that  there 
is  a  close  correspondence  between  scholastic  efficiency  and  intel 
lectual  capacity. 

To  those  who  know  the  conditions  of  life  of  Negro  youth 
and  those  of  other  youth  in  New  York  it  is  evident  that  the 
neighborhood  and  home  conditions  differ  radically  and  that  all 
the  opportunities  for  use  in  occupations  and  other  walks  of  life 
of  high  school  training,  which  so  largely  determines  student 
morale,  is  very  different.  Again,  probably  many  of  the  Negroes 

1  Ferguson,  George  Oscar,  "The  Psychology  of  the   Negro," 
Archives  of  Psychology,  No.  36,  April,  1916,  Vol.  XXV,  No.  i, 
p.  i. 

2  Miller,  Herbert  A.,  "The  Myth  of  Racial  Inferiority,"  The 
World  To-morrow,  March,  1922. 

3  Mayo,   Marion  J.,   "The   Mental  Capacity   of  the  American 
Negro,"  Ph.D.  thesis,  reprinted  from  the  Archives  of  Psychol 
ogy,  No.  28. 


APPENDIX  197 

who  reached  the  high  schools  in  New  York  had  a  part  of  their 
grammar  school  work  in  the  South  where  schools  are  very  much 
below  those  of  New  York  or  other  Northern  cities.  To  say 
that  the  scholastic  efficiency  of  New  York  high  schools  is  a 
measure  of  intellectual  capacity  carries  evident  limitations. 
With  these  and  the  two  other  assumptions,  the  results  showed 
only  "a  difference  of  four  points  in  average  class  standing  be 
tween  (the)  two  (racial)  groups,"  a  difference  that  the  investi 
gator  himself  counts  as  of  little  significance. 

After  a  quantitative  study1  of  white  and  Negro  school  chil 
dren  of  the  public  schools  of  Richmond,  Fredericksburg  and 
Newport  News,  Virginia,  while  admitting  that  the  groups 
studied  are  not  typical  of  the  white  and  Negro  populations  in 
general,  Ferguson  still  reaches  a  conclusion  that  while  there  is 
practically  no  difference  in  the  two  races  in  "the  so-called  lower 
traits,"  .  .  .  motor  capacity,  sense  capacity,  perceptive  and  dis 
criminative  ability,  "the  simpler  receptive  and  discharging  func 
tions,  ...  it  is  in  the  central  elaborate  powers  upon  which 
thought  more  directly  depends  that  differences  exist."  He  does 
not  produce  sufficient  data  to  show  that  there  are  such  and  what 
they  are  so  as  to  warrant  such  a  conclusion. 

The  Virginia  Educational  Commission,  composed  of  some  of 
the  nation's  ablest  educational  experts,  who  studied  the  public 
schools  of  that  state,  conducted  mental  tests  of  about  20,000 
pupils,  white  and  colored,  in  city  and  non-city  schools,  "pro 
ducing  a  body  of  information,"  as  the  report  says,  "never  before 
approached  in  this  country  or  any  other.  This  material  is  con 
sidered  by  competent  judges  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  body  of 
measurement  data  which  has  ever  been  collected."  Commenting 
on  the  results,  from  the  median  scores  for  colored  children 
compared  with  those  for  white  children  for  the  tests  in  addi 
tion,  spelling,  reading,  and  handwriting  in  school  grades  III  to 
VII  inclusive,  the  Commission  says : 2  "An  examination  shows 
that  the  apparent  differences  are  not  very  great  between  the 
achievements  of  colored  children  and  those  of  white  children. 
It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  almost  every  grade 
considered  colored  children  are  on  the  average  a  year  or  more 
older  and  have  attended  school  on  the  average  a  year  longer 
than  white  pupils." 


1  Ferguson,  work  cited. 

2  Report  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  of  the  Virginia 
Public  Schools  Education  Commission,  Richmond,  1919,  p.  131. 


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A  Short  History  of  the  American  Negro.    Revised  edition. 

1919.    Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.    $2.00. 
HIGGINSON,    THOMAS    WENTWORTH.     Army   Life   in   a    Black 

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BAKER,    RAY    STANNARD.    Following    the    Color    Line.    1908. 

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DOUGLASS,   H.   PAUL.    Christian  Reconstruction  in   the  South. 

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MILLER,   KELLY.    Race   Adjustment.     1912.     Neale    Publishing 

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MURPHY,   EDGAR   GARDNER.    Problems   of   the   Present   South. 

New  edition.     1916.     Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  New  York, 

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Negro    Population    1790-19/5.    United    States    Census.     1918. 

Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C. 
ROMAN,    CHARLES    V.,    M.D.    American    Civilization    and    the 

Negro.     1916.     F.  A.  Davis  Co.,  Philadelphia.     $2.50. 
^Selected  Articles  on  the  Negro  Problem.    Compiled  by  JULIA  E. 

JOHNSON.     The   Handbook  Series.     1921.     H.  W.  Wilson 

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*SELIGMANN,  HERBERT  J.    Negro  Faces  America.    1920.    Harper 

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WEATHERFORD,    W.    D.    Present    Forces    in    Negro    Progress. 

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DOUGLASS,  FREDERICK.  Life  and  Times  of  Frederick  Douglass. 
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*  HAMMOND,  L.  H.  In  the  Vanguard  of  a  Race.  1922.  Council 
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The  Negro  in  Agriculture 

BANKS,  E.  M.  Economics  of  Land  Tenure  in  Georgia.  Vol. 
XXIII,  No.  i,  Columbia  University  Studies.  1905.  Long 
mans,  Green  &  Co.,  New  York.  $1.00. 

*DuBois,  W.  E.  B.  The  Negroes  of  the  Black  Belt.  U.  S. 
Dept.  of  Labor  Bulletin,  Vol.  IV,  No.  22,  pp.  401-16,  Wash 
ington,  D.  C. 


Negro  Migration 

HAYNES,    GEORGE    E.    "The    Negro    Moves    North."    Articles 
published  in  The  Survey,  May  4,  1918,  January  4,  1919. 

*Negro  Migration  1916-191?.    U.   S.  Dept.  of  Labor.    Govern 
ment  Printing  Office.     1918.    Washington,  D.  C. 

*WOODSON,  CARTER  G.  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration.  Pub 
lished  for  Association  for  Study  of  Negro  Life  and  His 
tory.  1918.  1216  U  Street,  Washington,  D.  C.  $1.00. 
WOOFTER,  THOMAS  JACKSON,  JR.  Negro  Migration,  Changes  in 
Rural  Organisation  and  Population  of  the  Cotton  Belt. 
1920.  W.  D.  Gray,  106  Seventh  Avenue,  New  York.  $2.25. 


READING  LIST  203 

The  Negro  in  Industry 

Atlanta  University  Studies:  (i)  No.  7.  The  Negro  Artisan. 
W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  1902;  (2)  No.  17.  The  Negro  American 
Artisan.  1912.  Bibliography  and  pages  37-114.  Atlanta 
University  Press,  Atlanta,  Ga.  75  cents  each. 

HAYNES,  GEORGE  E.  "Effect  of  War  Conditions  on  Negro  La 
bor."  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Political  Science, 
Vol.  8,  pp.  229-312.  April,  1919. 

*The  Negro  at  Work  During  the  War  and  During  Reconstruc 
tion.  Second  Study  of  Negro  Labor.  1920;  also  Negro 
Women  in  Industry.  1922.  Department  of  Labor.  Gov 
ernment  Printing  Office.  Washington,  D.  C. 

Negro  Health 

Atlanta  University  Studies:  (i)  Social  and  Physical  Condi 
tions  of  Negroes  in  Cities.  1897.  25  cents;  (2)  Health  and 
Physique  of  the  Negro  Americans.  1906.  Atlanta  Uni 
versity  Press.  $1.00. 

HALL,  GEORGE  C.  "Negro  Hospitals,"  Southern  Workman, 
October,  1910.  Hampton  Institute. 

HOFFMAN,  FREDERICK  L.  "The  Negro  as  an  Insurance  Risk." 
The  Spectator,  September  n,  1902,  p.  112;  continued 
September  18,  p.  125. 

*LovE,  A.  G.,  and  DAVENPORT,  C.  B.  "Comparison  of  white  and 
colored  troops  in  respect  to  incidence  of  disease."  Pro 
ceedings  of  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  Vol.  5,  pp.  58- 
67.  March,  1919. 

ROMAN,  CHARLES  V.,  M.D.  "The  American  Negro  and  Social 
Hygiene."  Social  Hygiene,  Vol.  7,  p.  41.  January,  1921. 

Negro  Achievements  in  General 

*BRAWLEY,  BENJAMIN  G.     The  Negro  in  Literature  and  Art  in 

the  United  States.    1918.    Duffield  &  Co.,  New  York.    $1.35. 

ROUNDY,  RODNEY  W.    "The  Negro  an  Asset  of  the  American 

Nation."    Leaflet  published  by  the  Home  Missions  Council, 

156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.     10  cents. 

*The  Book  of  American  Negro  Poetry.  Edited  by  JAMES 
WELDON  JOHNSON.  1922.  Harcourt,  Brace  &  Co.,  New- 
York.  $1.75. 

Negro  Music 

BURLIN,  NATALIE  CURTIS.  Negro  Folk  Songs.  Hampton 
Series,  1918-19.  G.  Schirmer,  New  York.  50  cents. 


204  READING  LIST 

*KREHBIEL,   HENRY  E.    Afro-American  Folk   Songs.    1914.    G. 

Schirmer,  New  York.    $2.00. 

WORK,  JOHN  WESLEY.  Folk  Songs  of  the  American  Negro. 
1915.  Fisk  University  Book  Store,  Nashville,  Tenn.  $1.10. 

Negro  Literature 

BRAITHWAITE,  W.  S.    Lyrics  of  Life  and  Love.    1904.    Small, 

Maynard  &  Co.,  Boston.    $1.00. 
DuBois,  W.   E.   B.     The  Souls   of  Black  Folk.    1902.    A.   C. 

McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago.    $1.20. 
DUNBAR,  PAUL  LAURENCE.    Lyrics  of  Lowly  Life.    1899.    Dodd, 

Mead  &  Co.,  New  York.    $1.25. 
TALLEY,    T.    W.    Folk    Rhymes    of    the    Negro.    1921.    Mao 

millan  Co.,  New  York.    $2.25. 
The    Book    of    American    Negro    Poetry.    Edited    by    JAMES 

WELDON    JOHNSON.    1921.    Harcourt,    Brace    &    Co.,    New 

York.    $1.75. 

Negro  Mind  and  Education 

Atlanta  University  Studies:  (i)  No.  5.  The  College-bred  Ne 
gro.  Edited  by  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  and  A.  G.  DILL.  1900. 
25  cents;  (2)  No.  13.  The  College-bred  Negro  American. 
1910.  75  cents;  (3)  No.  19.  A  Study  of  Crime  Among 
Negro  Americans.  75  cents. 

*KERLIN,  ROBERT  T.  The  Voice  of  the  Negro.  (Analysis  of 
Negro  newspaper  opinion  in  1919.)  1920.  E.  P.  Dutton  & 
Co.,  New  York.  $2.50. 

*Negro  Education;  A  Study  of  the  Private  and  Higher  Schools 
for  Colored  People  in  the  United  States.  Edited  by  T.  J. 
Jones.  Bulletin  39.  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 
1917.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C. 

PEABODY,  FRANCIS  G.  Education  for  Life:  The  Story  of  Hamp 
ton  Institute.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  New 
York.  $2.50. 

SCOTT  AND  STOWE.  Booker  T.  Washington:  Builder  of  Civiliza 
tion.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  New  York. 

*WOODSON,  CARTER  GODWIN.    Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to 

1861.    1915.    G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York.    $2.00. 
WOODWORTH,    R.    S.    "Racial    Differences    in    Mental    Traits," 
Science.    New  Series,  pp.  177-186,  reprinted. 

Negro  Church  and  the  Religious  Life 

*Atlanta  University  Studies :  No.  8.  The  Negro  Church.  Edited 
by  W.  E.  B.  DuBois.  Statistics  are  old,  but  report  con- 


READING  LIST  205 

tains   a   number   of    valuable   points.     Atlanta   University 
Press,  Atlanta,  Ga.    $1.00. 

*WOODSON,  C.  G.  The  History  of  the  Negro  Church.  1922. 
Associated  Publishers,  1216  U  Street,  N.  W.f  Washington, 
D.  C. 

The  World  Survey.  American  Volume,  pp.  99-101.  Inter- 
church  World  Movement.  Obtainable  from  Home  Mis 
sions  Council  and  the  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Mis 
sions,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City,  for  postage. 

Negro  Citizenship 

BAKER,  RAY  STANNARD.  Following  the  Color  Line.  Chapter 
XL  1908.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  New 
York.  $2.00. 

*McCALL,  SAMUEL  W.  Life  of  Thaddeus  Stevens.  1909. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston.  $1.25. 

STEPHENSON,  GILBERT  THOMAS.  Race  Distinctions  in  American 
Law.  1910.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York.  $1.50. 

WOODSON,  C.  G.  "Fifty  Years  of  Negro  Citizenship."  Quali 
fied  by  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court.  Journal  of  Negro  His 
tory,  Vol.  6,  p.  1-53,  January,  1921. 

Community  Conditions  Among  Negroes  (General) 

*DANIELS,  JOHN.    In  Freedom's  Birthplace:  a  Study  of  the  Bos 
ton  Negroes.     1914.     Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston.     $1.50. 
HAYNES,  GEORGE  E.    Negro  New-comers  in  Detroit,  Michigan. 
1918.    Home  Missions  Council,  New  York.    20  cents. 


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